Jaquelin Holliday Hume

Jaquelin Holliday "Jack" Hume (1905–1991) was an American businessman and conservative philanthropist. He co-founded Basic American Foods, the world's largest producer of dried onion and garlic, and later dried potatoes, for instant mashed potatoes and boxed potato casseroles. He was a major donor to President Ronald Reagan, and a patron of the arts.

Biography

Early life Jaquelin Holliday Hume was born in 1905 in Harbor Point, Michigan. He had an older brother, William Mansur Hume (1900-1976), subsequently receiving an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1930.

Business career With his brother, he co-founded the Basic Vegetable Products Company in 1933. The company sold dried onion and garlic as well as dried beans.

Philanthropy He served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center. Seventeen years later, in 1975, he established the Foundation for Teaching Economics, a non-profit organization that promotes the teaching of economics in elementary and high schools in the United States. Indeed, he had known President Reagan as earlier as 1965. He was also "a close friend" of Edwin Meese, who went on to serve as the 75th Attorney General of the United States from 1985 to 1988. He also raised funds for other conservative Republicans.

Personal life He was married to Caroline Howard Hume, a philanthropist. According to the abstract, it contains, "Correspondence, memoranda, reports, studies, lists, and financial records, relating to Republican Party fundraising activities, especially in California, election campaigns of Ronald Reagan, especially his presidential campaign in 1976, and the gubernatorial and presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan." The Jaquelin Hume Foundation remains an established conservative non-profit organization. Since 1998, it has focused on education reform in the United States, especially charter schools, vouchers, standards, and curricula. It has granted donations to the Center for Education Reform, the State Policy Network, the Institute for Justice, the Alliance for School Choice, and the Association of American Educators. His son, William J. Hume, a.k.a. Jerry Hume, serves as the Chairman of Basic American Foods. He is also a conservative philanthropist.