Alfonso Fanjul Sr. (30 September 1909 – 16 October 1980) was a Cuban-born American sugar baron.
Early life
Alfonso Fanjul was born in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. He had two brothers. He graduated from
Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...
(CUA) in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Career
Alfonso Fanjul's family owned the Czarnikow-Rionda Company, with operations in New York, Havana and London, and the Cuban Trading Company in Cuba. His 1936, marriage to Lillian Rosa Gomez-Mena, the daughter of
José Gómez-Mena
José "Pepe" Genaro Ramon Gómez-Mena Vila (1883 – 1960) was a Cuban sugar baron, and Minister of Agriculture during the Miguel Mariano Gomez government (May 20, 1936 - December 24, 1936).
Early life
He was born in 1883, the son of Andrés Góm ...
, whose family owned Cuba's New Gomez-Mena Sugar Company, united two of the country's leading sugar fortunes, and created a combined business of ten sugar mills, three distilleries, and Cuban-wide real estate holdings. He was also the president of the Havana Country Club.
In 1959, the family moved to the US, after
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
's communist regime began seizing all of their property. The Castro regime seized the Gomez-Mena mansion, and leaving its art and furnishings intact, renamed it the
National Museum of Decorative Arts
The National Museum of Decorative Arts is an art museum in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
History
The museum has its origins in a marriage in 1897 between two prominent members of turn-of-the-century Argentine high society: Matías Errazúri ...
.
Fanjul purchased 4,000 acres of land near
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee ( ) is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the List of largest lakes of the United States by area, eighth-largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest ...
and some Louisiana sugar mills, and expanded from there. By the end of his life, he was the chairman of Osceola Farms, New Hope Sugar Co. and Flo-Sun Land Corp. He also served on the boards of directors of the Florida Sugar Marketing and Terminal Association and the Florida Sugar Cane League.
Personal life
In 1936, Fanjul married Lillian Rosa Gomez-Mena (1918–1992). They resided at 109 Wells Road in Palm Beach, and they had four sons, the
Fanjul brothers
The Fanjul family —Cuban-born brothers Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul Jr., José "Pepe" Fanjul, Alexander Fanjul, and Andres Fanjul—are owners of Fanjul Corp., a vast sugar and real estate conglomerate. It comprises the subsidiaries Domino Sugar, ...
, and one daughter:
* Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul Jr. (born 1937)
* José "Pepe" Fanjul (born 1944)
*Alexander L. Fanjul (born 1950)
*Andres B. Fanjul (born 1958)
*Lian Fanjul, married Norberto Azqueta Sr. and resided in Venezuela.
Fanjul was a governor of the
Everglades Club
The Everglades Club is a social club in Palm Beach, Florida. When its construction began in July 1918, it was to be called the ''Touchstone Convalescent Club'', and it was intended to be a hospital for the wounded of World War I. But the war ende ...
. He was also a member of the Bath and Tennis Club in Palm Beach and the
Seminole Golf Club
Seminole Golf Club is a private golf club in the southeastern United States, located in Juno Beach, Florida. Designed by Donald Ross in 1929, it is consistently ranked as one of the top 100 courses in the nation.
History
Investment banker Edw ...
in
Juno Beach, Florida
Juno Beach is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Juno Beach is home to the headquarters of Florida Power & Light, the Loggerhead Marinelife Center and the Seminole Golf Club. It was also the original county seat for the area tha ...
as well as the Meadow Club and the Bathing Corp. in
Southampton, New York
Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stre ...
. Fanjul was a "confidante" of President
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...
, the Duke of Windsor, King Leopold of Belgium and King Juan-Carlos of Spain. He became a "significant contributor to Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns in the 1980s."
Death
Fanjul died of pneumonia on 16 October 1980 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida. His funeral was held at St. Edwards Catholic Church in Palm Beach.