Catherine Terese MacArthur (née Hyland; November 23, 1908 – December 15, 1981) was an American philanthropist. With the estate of her husband, businessman and philanthropist
John D. MacArthur
John Donald MacArthur (March 6, 1897 – January 6, 1978) was an American insurance magnate, real estate investor and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships.
...
, she co-founded the
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...
, one of the 10 largest philanthropic
foundations in the United States.
Life
Born Catherine Terese Hyland in 1908, MacArthur was one of nine children of Irish immigrants on
Chicago's South Side
The South Side is an area of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. It lies south of the city's Loop area in the downtown. Geographically, it is the largest of the three sides of the city that radiate from downtown, with the other two being the north and we ...
.
[About John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur](_blank)
/ref> Her father owned and operated several retail stores, was active in Democratic politics in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, and held several state and local governmental positions.
In 1938 she married John D. MacArthur. In 1935, MacArthur purchased Bankers Life and Casualty
Bankers Life is the primary subsidiary of CNO Financial Group, Inc. (itself formerly Conseco, Inc until 2010). The company was established in 1879 in Chicago, Illinois. CNO is a Fortune 1000 company (rank of 548 in 2015) whose subsidiaries provid ...
for $2,500 and used mass marketing techniques to sell insurance by mail.
Banker's Life was the basis of John's phenomenal success in real estate and insurance. Official Banker's Life press releases verify that Catherine was intimately involved in the business's success. She appears throughout the records under her maiden name, C.T. Hyland, as corporate secretary, director, or both.Learning to Give - John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
In 1963, John purchased the Colonnades Hotel in
Palm Beach Shores on
Singer Island
Singer Island is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of Palm Beach County, Florida, in the South Florida metropolitan area. Most of it is in the city of Riviera Beach, but the town of Palm Beach Shores occupies its southern tip. Its latitude of ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. Catherine lived with her husband in a modest apartment overlooking the parking lot, while John conducted his business from a corner table in the hotel's coffee shop.
[Lowery, Fred]
"Celebrity Days Remembered As Colonnades Hotel Is Razed"
'' South Florida Sun-Sentinel'', February 17, 1990
When John D. MacArthur died on January 6, 1978, he was worth over $1 billion and reportedly one of the three wealthiest men in the United States.
Death
References
External links
Biography at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macarthur, Catherine T.
1908 births
1981 deaths
American businesspeople in insurance
American people of Irish descent
Philanthropists from Illinois
People from Chicago
People from Palm Beach County, Florida
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American philanthropists