December 16, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel
By Lawrence G. Foster
When Robert Wood Johnson died in 1968, the foundation he had created 32 years earlier stood poised to inherit $300-million of his company’s stock. The philanthropy adhered to the high moral scruples of its namesake by avoiding any conflict of interest with Johnson & Johnson and by applying stern accounting measures to its grant making, writes Mr. Foster.
This biography of “the General” offers a chapter examining how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation rode its infusion of company money to become the fifth-wealthiest grant maker in the United States.
Mr. Foster, former corporate vice-president of public relations at Johnson & Johnson, writes that the foundation has followed the company’s celebrated “credo” — a document written by Mr. Johnson in 1944 that espouses accountability and fairness.
Along the way, Mr. Foster explores the origins of the medical-services company, which was founded by the elder Robert Wood Johnson and his two brothers in 1887, and charts its ascension.
Of the son who eventually took control, he writes, “As early as the 1930s, he proclaimed that business had a moral purpose, indeed a moral imperative, to serve society and the public interest. … He set a standard that much of American business followed.”
Publisher: Lillian Press, c/o BookMasters, P.O. Box 388, Ashland, Ohio 44805; (888) 795-2464; fax (419) 281-6883; http://www.rwjohnsonbiog.com; 736 pages; $30 plus $6 postage and handling; I.S.B.N. 0-9662882-0-3.
