Jack C. Taylor

Taylor was the elder of two sons born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Melburne Martling Taylor and Dorothy Crawford Taylor.^[1] Taylor enrolled in the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis in 1940.^[2][3] He left school to join the U.S. Navy.^[3] During World War II, he piloted an F6F Hellcat fighter from the decks of the USS Essex (CV-9) and the USS Enterprise (CV-6)^[2] earning two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Navy Air Medal.^[3]

After the war, he returned to St. Louis and started a delivery service company.^[4] His clients were big department stores and he picked up packages and delivered them to their customers.^[4] In 1948, he took a job at the Lindburg Cadillac dealership where he eventually became a sales manager.^[3] In 1957, he started a car leasing business at the dealership in partnership with his employer, Arthur R. Lindburg^[5], which required that he take a 50 percent pay cut and put up $25,000 for a 25% interest in the business.^[3] Targeting people whose cars were in the shop, the Executive Leasing Company began operation with a total of seven cars.^[3]

In 1969, Taylor expanded outside St. Louis and changed the name of the company to Enterprise, after the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier upon which he had served in World War II.^[6] 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.^[3] By 1980, the rental fleet had grown to 6,000 cars. In 1989, the fleet had grown to 50,000 and he changed the name of the company to Enterprise Rent-A-Car.^[3] By 1992, Enterprise surpassed $1 billion in revenues and by 1995, it reached $2 billion in revenues. In 2007, Enterprise purchased National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-A-Car.^[3] The current executive chairman is Taylor's son, Andrew C. Taylor.^[3]

Taylor's business credo was: "Take care of your customers and employees first, and profits will follow." His grand daughter, Chrissy Taylor, is now the CEO of the company.^[3][7]

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^[3]
• $30 million to the Missouri Botanical Garden to fund global plant research. It was the largest gift ever to a U.S. botanical garden.^[3]
• $25 million to establish the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Scholars Program at Washington University in St. Louis for minority and financially disadvantaged students
• $1 million to Ranken Technical College in St. Louis
• $22 million to 10 charitable and educational organizations that support underserved children in the St. Louis area^[8]
• $92.5 million to 13 cultural institutions and charities, mostly in the St. Louis area^[9]

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.^[7] Taylor and his first wife divorced in 1977 after a long separation, and in 1979, he married Susan Orrison.^[10] Taylor and Orrison divorced in 2008.^[11] In 1978, Taylor's first wife married E. Desmond Lee, a widower and a prominent businessman and philanthropist in his own right.^[12]

Taylor died on July 2, 2016, in St. Louis at the age of 94.^[13]

In 2021, the United States Naval Institute in Annapolis named its new conference center for Taylor.^[14]