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The bedrock of the Hyde Family Foundations - their history as well as their philanthropic philosophy - is Joseph Reeves Hyde Sr., who moved to Memphis in the early 1900's and wrote one of the city's most notable chapters of entrepreneurship.
Moving from Chattanooga in response to reports that Memphis was a good place for a young man in search of a career, Mr. Hyde displayed an enterprising spirit that would take him from his small grocery store near downtown Memphis to revolutionize the wholesale grocery industry with the creation in 1907 of the wholesale food distributor, Malone & Hyde.
Coupled with his passion for business was an equal commitment to a quiet, personal brand of philanthropy. It was a strong faith shared by his wife, Ruth Sherman Hyde, which sustained a belief that "to whom much is given, much is required." Throughout his life, he contributed to numerous charities, with special attention to Rhodes College (then Southwestern at Memphis); Lambuth University at Jackson, Tennessee; and the religious activities of his church.
In September 1961, at the age of 77, Mr. Hyde founded the J.R. Hyde Sr. Family Foundation to continue his philanthropy. In keeping with the distinctive family brand of philanthropy that continues today, members of the board were his children, Joseph R. Hyde Jr., Jane Hyde Scott, and Margaret R. Hyde, and his grandson, J.R. Hyde III.
Upon his death in 1972, Margaret Hyde was elected president of the Foundation, and two more of the senior Mr. Hyde's grandchildren - Susan Calhoun and Jeanne Varnell - became members of the board along with his widow, Ruth S. Hyde.
In the early 1990's, J.R. Hyde III became president of the Foundation. He had joined the family business and expanded Malone & Hyde into the nation's third largest wholesale food distributor. He was elected president of Malone & Hyde in 1968 and CEO in 1972 - the youngest CEO listed on the New York Stock Exchange for a decade. He founded AutoZone in 1979, guiding its growth from three stores in two states to more than 3,200 stores in the U.S., Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
In May 1992, about the time that he became president of the J.R. Hyde Sr. Family Foundation, Hyde founded the J.R. Hyde III Family Foundation. Continuing tradition, the board is composed of his adult children and his wife, Barbara Rosser Hyde, who serves as its president.
The strong sense of family purpose that dates back to the early 20th century is a legacy of the Hyde Family Foundations that continues today through the family's fourth generation. With a family history bound together by the thread of philanthropy, the Foundations have an especially clear sense of their values, their anchor beliefs in the power of diversity and knowledge, and their singular goal to make Memphis a better place for future generations.
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