Jack C. Taylor

Taylor was the elder of two sons born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Melburne Martling Taylor and Dorothy Crawford Taylor. Taylor enrolled in the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis in 1940. He left school to join the U.S. Navy. During World War II, he piloted an F6F Hellcat fighter from the decks of the and the earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Navy Air Medal. ==Career==

After the war, he returned to St. Louis and started a delivery service company. In 1948, he took a job at the Lindburg Cadillac dealership where he eventually became a sales manager., which required that he take a 50 percent pay cut and put up $25,000 for a 25% interest in the business. Unlike his competitors, who focused on business rentals at airports, Taylor concentrated on the hometown market offering home pickup services which led to Enterprise's "We'll Pick You Up" slogan. == Philanthropy ==

Among other gifts, Taylor gave: • $45 million to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, part of which established the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute to pursue green energy projects. • $40 million to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra • $92.5 million to 13 cultural institutions and charities, mostly in the St. Louis area ==Personal life==

Taylor was married and divorced twice. In 1945, Taylor married the former Mary Ann MacCarthy, and the couple had two children: Andrew C. Taylor, who is the executive chairman of Enterprise, and Jo Ann Taylor, who runs the Taylor family philanthropic activities. In 1978, Taylor's first wife married E. Desmond Lee, a widower and a prominent businessman and philanthropist in his own right. Taylor died on July 2, 2016, in St. Louis at the age of 94. == Honors ==

In 2021, the United States Naval Institute in Annapolis named its new conference center for Taylor. == References ==