John P. "Jack" Schafer

Entrepreneur, Patriot, Seaman Founder of Toyota Walnut Creek was a WWII guerilla fighter, an international business entrepreneur, and an avid sailor. John "Jack" Schafer, founder of Toyota Walnut Creek, dynamited key railroad and bus infrastructure in the Philippines ahead of the advancing Japanese after the Pearl Harbor attack. Labeled a missing civilian for 3 years during the war, he evaded the Japanese and led guerilla counter-insurgency. Post war, he started a cement company to rebuild the ruins.

Returning to the U.S., Jack was a major contributor to the then hi-tech startup Hexcel Corporation which pioneered structural honeycomb. He died of kidney failure May 30. He was 85.

Jack Schafer had gone to the Philippines as a young geologist after studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and his graduate thesis work near Manila was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Already fluent in Tagalong, he enlisted the help of local Philippine friends and destroyed the local transportation system. They then escaped into the jungles and waters of the islands. Using metal clad sampans, Jack and his fellow guerillas evaded capture by skimming over coral reefs that were too shallow for the Japanese patrol boats to follow.

As the war progressed the guerillas were able to establish contact with the American submarine force and prepare for the counter invasion. General McArthur personally thanked Jack Schafer after returning to the Philippines and retroactively commissioned Jack, granting him back pay for his years of guerilla fighting. Jack promptly used his army pay to start "Jack Built Blocks," a concrete block factory in Manila, to help rebuild the very infrastructure he had earlier helped destroy.

At the same time Jack's Sigma Chi brother, Roger Steele, later head of Hexcel Corporation, was in Manila to consult on a plastics operation. Roger Steele used the money he earned in Manila to develop Hexcel's revolutionary honeycomb processes in a basement in Lafayette, California, and Jack Schafer returned to the U.S. to become Secretary-Treasurer of the new California Reinforced Plastics Company (later renamed Hexcel Corp.) in 1952. Hexcel now produces over a billion dollars a year of advanced materials.

Jack retired from Hexcel in 1967 and founded Toyota Walnut Creek in Walnut Creek, California in 1970 with his brother-in-law Bud Jordan. He later bought out his partner and owned the dealership until his death. Toyota Walnut Creek now sells over four thousand vehicles a year and has won numerous awards both from Toyota as well as from other agencies for general performance, green business practices, and consumer satisfaction. Jack's wartime decisiveness and Hexcel acumen allowed him to maintain tight control of the dealership from afar after he moved to the San Diego area of California in the 1980s.

Retaining a life-long passion for sailing, Jack was a 45-year member of the Richmond Yacht Club and a long time member of the Coronado Yacht Club in southern California. In the 50s, 60s and 70s he could frequently be found sailing on the San Francisco Bay. After moving to Coronado in the 80s, Jack purchased his "Teak Lady" from Fess Parker of television fame and enjoyed the unique boat on many cruises in California and Mexican waters.

Jack Schafer was born Jan 1, 1917 in Stockton, California, and grew up in nearby Oakland, attended Oakland High School and then the University of California at Berkeley where his graduate work was interrupted by the war. After the Philippines he then lived around the San Francisco Bay area in Walnut Creek, Danville, and Orinda before moving to Coronado. Married for 57 years, Jack Schafer is survived by his wife Elizabeth, their children Owen Schafer and Judith Mckenzie, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His ashes were scattered in his favorite waters outside of San Diego, California.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Oakland Children's Hospital or Guide Dogs for the Blind.