John “Jack” Anderson, 90, of Vero Beach passed away on March 28, 2015, at his home.
He is survived by his wife Rose Marie; children Gail Canizares, Neil Anderson, and Barbara McDonald; 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
Anderson was a leader in hospital management and HMO industries. He was the President of the start-up hospital management company, Hospital Affiliates, Inc. from 1970 until its acquisition by INA Corporation in 1981, after which he led several public health care companies.
He was Chairman of Horizon Health Corporation, Republic Health Corporation, United Dental Care, Inc., TakeCare, Inc. and FHP International Corporation. He was also a director of several other companies including Quality Inns, Inc., Navistar International Corporation, and Medical Care International, Inc. He was a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a member of the Presidents’ Circle for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
Anderson authored “The Road to Recovery” in 1976, a book outlining how to restore financial stability to unprofitable hospitals.
He was born Feb. 14, 1925 in Mansfield, Ohio, where he was the youngest Eagle Scout at the time in Ohio in the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated Miami of Ohio University in 1947 and received his Masters from Columbia Business School in 1949.
Anderson served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he was assigned to a mine sweeper ship in the Pacific fleet. After returning from the war, while at Columbia, he married the love of his life, Rose-Marie Garcia Anderson, who survives him. She is a graduate of Hunter College and from Astoria, N.Y.
Anderson was employed at accounting and financial positions at Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith, Inc.; American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Inc.; Time Inc.; W.R.Grace & Company, Inc.; McCall Corporation and Reliance Group, Inc. In 1970 he became president and then chairman of Hospital Affiliates International, Inc. When that company was acquired by INA Corporation, he became chairman of The INA Health Care Group, Inc. which owned and managed hospitals on five continents, as well as health maintenance organizations and nursing homes in the United States. The CIGNA health plan resulted from the 1982 combination of the INA Corporation and Connecticut General Life Insurance Company.
Anderson traveled and read broadly, which furthered his interest in education. In 1994 he and his wife established the Anderson Foundation primarily to support efforts to improve K- 12 education in America. Since that time they devoted considerable time and effort in pursuing that goal.