John James Jachym

John James Jachym

• School University of Missouri

• Born May 9, 1918 in Youngstown, OH USA
• Died May 10, 2005 in Charlottesville, VA USA

Biographical Information

John James Jachym was briefly a minority owner of the Washington Senators.

After graduating from the University of Missouri, he started out as a newspaper reporter in Jefferson City, MO, where he became acquainted with Branch Rickey, the General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, who hired him as a part-time scout. This was interrupted by service in World War II after he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, seeing extensive combat action in the Pacific theater of war, including the battle of Guadalcanal. After the war, he relocated to Jamestown, NY where he became a successful businessman and purchased the local minor league team, the Jamestown Falcons. He then sold the team to the Detroit Tigers and in return was named assistant director of minor league operations by the Tigers.

In 1948, he saw the opportunity to make a big move with the death of Senators minority owner George Richardson. Richardson owned 40% of the team, having inherited his shares following the death of his twin brother, William Richardson, six years earlier, but had been a silent partner, deferring to Clark Griffith, who owned 44% of the team, on all decisions. However, when he died, his heirs wanted to extract maximum value from the shares and put them up for sale. Jachym purchased the stock for $549,000 with the backing of an oil dealer in 1949, and intended to have himself installed in a senior position with the team, given Griffith was now 80 years old and Jachym did have experience in baseball, contrary to Richardson. However, the team's board of directors was entirely controlled by Griffith, and they refused Jachym's request to be named the team's General Manager, or even to be given a seat on the board. Other suggestions, such as purchasing the minor league Buffalo Bisons to give the Senators a top minor league affiliate as most teams were doing at the time, were rebutted as well. Unhappy with his lack of power, Jachym decided to sell them a year later, and this time Griffith made sure that the buyer was someone who would let him continue to run things unchallenged. Washington, DC-based insurance broker H. Gabriel Murphy was the chosen partner and he let the senior Griffith run things as before, although he would later clash with his adoptive son Calvin Griffith following Clark's death in 1955.

After baseball, Jachym became a successful investment banker and top financial executive. He was active in Republican party circles, including serving as treasurer for Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980, but declined an offer to serve in his administration. He was an active supporter of the Professional Golfers Association, serving on its board of Directors as well as the American observer for the Ryder Cup. He is one of a very small number of men to be named an honorary member of the PGA for services rendered. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.