Jack Massey is one of the unsung heroes of American business. To this
day he is the only person ever to take three companies to the New York
Stock ExchangeóKentucky Fried Chicken, Hospital Corporation of America,
and Winner's Corporation. According to Forbes, he "deserves credit for
creating the modern fast-food industry." He should get credit for
for-profit hospitals as well. The list of people who claim Massey as a
mentor includes one U.S. senator, two former Tennessee governors, and
the Wendy's founder Dave Thomas.Incredibly, Massey did all of this after
he tried to retire. Massey spent his childhood working in his uncle's
drugstore in small-town Georgia. Passing the pharmacy exam and receiving
his license at age 19 (two years below the minimum legal age), Massey
built up a chain of drugstores in Nashville, which he expanded into a
surgical supply business in 1937, and became a bank director and head of
Nashville's Baptist Hospital. In 1961 he sold his surgical supply
company and retired.