John T Lupton

Transformed his family bottling business into a big piece of the Coca-Cola soft drink empire and then helped revitalize his native city, Chattanooga, Tennessee. The bottling business that secured Mr. Lupton a place on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans was started by his grandfather and a pair of partners in 1889 — they paid a dollar for the right to bottle Coca-Cola — and then handed down to his father. What became the JTL Corporation grew over the decades into one of the largest bottling operations in the world, mostly through sales of a single brand: Coca-Cola. After his father died in 1977, Mr. Lupton assumed the chairmanship of JTL, leading the company on an aggressive expansion campaign as he acquired bottling plants in Florida, Texas, Colorado and Arizona. When none of his four children showed interest in taking over the family business, Mr. Lupton sold it to Coca-Cola in 1986 for about $1.4 billion. By then, JTL was responsible for roughly 13 percent of Coke’s sales in the United States. With the Lyndhurst Foundation, begun by his father, investing more than $20 million, Mr. Lupton played a crucial role in developing the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. The attraction opened in 1992. He also played a major role in the construction of the Tennessee Riverwalk, a downtown riverfront promenade that furthered the city’s return. John T. Lupton was born in Chattanooga on July 23, 1926. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he worked briefly in the textile industry before joining the family business in 1948, first as a loader at a bottle-washing facility in Georgia and then in the management ranks. From 1956 to 1982, he served on the Coca-Cola board. In addition to his son, Mr. Lupton is survived by his wife, Alice; three daughters, Margaret Lupton Gerber of Memphis, Katherine Lupton Juett of Dallas and Alice Lupton Smith of Lookout Mountain, Tenn.; his brother, Joe Henderson; 11 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.