He was born in 1917, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of a barber.
He attended UCLA from 1936 to 1940. He went on to earn his MBA from Harvard University; he was awarded his MBA after WWII broke out.
He served in the US Navy during WWII. After the war, he continued his education, earning a JD degree from Loyola Law School. He was offered a full-time teaching position at the law school; he taught there for 25 years, morning and evening classes and still worked full-time at his law firm.
On April 1, 1956, Anderson founded Ace Beverage Co. with exclusive rights to distribute Budweiser products in Los Angeles, California.
In 2006 he was ranked 189th among the Forbes 400 with a net worth of $1.9 billion.
UCLA’s John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management is named after him following gifts of $17 million over the years.
Today, it was announced that Mr Anderson will be giving the UCLA School of Management an additional $25 million.
Since last fall, the Anderson school has been at the center of a debate over Dean Judy Olian's proposal to end the school's reliance on dwindling state funds and gradually shift it to financial self-sufficiency through higher tuition and more private donations. The plan, which critics called a step toward privatizing the public university system, is still being reviewed by UC hierarchy.Decisions, decisions, decisions.
A private university? Hmmm. Would that be a good idea? Would that set a bad precedent? Oh, that's right. Boston's Harvard University is private, and last time I looked, doing just fine.
