Jon Lovelace

Born Feb. 6, 1927, in Detroit, Lovelace initially was reluctant to join the company that his father, Jonathan, had founded in L.A. as Capital Research and Management Co. in 1931. The elder Lovelace, a stockbroker, thought equities had become overpriced in the heady days of the late 1920s. In a brilliant move, he sold most of his investments before the 1929 crash. With his new company, the elder Lovelace began to focus on mutual fund management in the 1930s, as stocks began to recover from the crash. After his son graduated from Princeton University in 1950, the elder Lovelace sought to recruit him to come to Capital. After a brief stint at a consumer finance company, however, Lovelace agreed to join his father, taking a position as a statistician at Capital. His role at the firm quickly began to grow after his father had a heart attack in 1953. In the community, Lovelace chaired the J. Paul Getty Trust from 1988 to 1993, when the new Getty Center was under construction. He also was a founding trustee and later served as board chairman of the California Institute of the Arts. An avid hiker, Lovelace helped the Yosemite Fund build and maintain hiking trails including the John Muir Trail. He is survived by his wife, Lillian; his daughter, Carey; three sons, Jeffrey, Jim and Rob; and six grandchildren.