‘Beat ‘em Jack’ left his mark

John “Jack” Bierwirth, a lifelong resident of Lawrence and leader of the Grumman Corporation, a manufacturer of airplanes, died on May 26. He was 89.

Born on Jan. 21, 1924 in Lawrence, Bierwirth attended the Lawrence Country Day School that was in Hewlett and later merged with Woodmere Academy to form Lawrence Woodmere Academy. He graduated the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a law degree from Columbia Law School.

He worked at the Manhattan-based law firm, White & Case, before becoming an assistant vice president of the New York Trust Company in 1953. Bierwirth joined Grumman in 1972, first as a vice president, then president, chief executive and finally chairman four years later. Twice he rescued the Bethpage-based aviation company. In the 1970s he kept Grumman from going bankrupt and in the ’80s defeated a hostile takeover bid.

Weyman “Sandy” Jones met Bierwirth in 1976 when he became vice president for public affairs at Grumman. “After I got the job, Jack invited my wife Marilyn to join us at lunch and took her for a tour of the property in his Checker sedan — he liked the room for his long legs,” Jones said. “The Grumman garage glued a checkers decal on his car one day as a joke and Jack almost had to fight his way out of a cab line at LaGuardia. He thought it was hilarious.”

Bierwirth’s signature moment at Grumman, Jones said, was when he led the opposition to a takeover by LTV, a Dallas-based corporation. “Their offer was a lucrative deal for Jack and other shareholders, but many Grumman employees would have lost their jobs,” Jones said. “Jack cherished the moment when employees hired an airplane to tow a banner, ‘Beat ‘em Back Jack,’ over Long Island.”

According to Jones, Bierwirth was born into a privileged family, as his father was the chief executive officer of National Distillers. He was also a friend and Yale baseball teammate to George H.W. Bush. “He empathized with people of all backgrounds,” Jones said. “He was a committed environmentalist and a natural athlete and competitor who gave no quarter in our lunchtime racquetball games.”

After retiring in 1988, Bierwirth remained active in the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy, Long Island Nature Conservancy and as a trustee at Adelphi University. “He also loved tennis, was a baseball pitcher and loved fly fishing,” said Warren, one of his two sons. “He was very warm and had a happy family life; he was just the best.”

Travelling was another Bierwirth hobby, Jones said. “He listed Grumman on the Tokyo stock exchange, visited friends in Taiwan often and served as chairman of the board of the Yale-China Association,” Jones said. “He and [his wife] Marion enjoyed travelling to Iceland and other off-the-beaten-path places. Jack had a world view of politics, business and recreation.”

He is survived by his wife Marion, sons John E. and Warren, daughters Marion B. Woolam and Susan B. Arbios, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.