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23-466: The foundation was created in 1937 by James Harvey Irvine Sr. (1867–1947) , as a charitable organization to hold controlling stock in the Irvine Company, because his intended successor, James Harvey Irvine Jr. (1894–1935) died of tuberculosis in 1935. Since 1937 the foundation has provided more than $ 2.4 billion in grants to nonprofit organizations throughout California. With about $ 3.2 billion in assets,

46-721: A heart attack on August 24, 1947 while on a fishing trip in Montana at the Flying D Ranch with Irvine Company manager William Bradford Hellis and real estate broker Walter S. Tubach. James Harvey Irvine, Jr. (1894–1935) was groomed since a young man to take over the Ranch. He married Madeline Agassiz in 1914, but they were divorced in 1928. He married Athalie Richardson (1903–1993) in 1929, and they had one daughter, Athalie Anita "Joan" Irvine (1933–2019 ). When James Irvine III died of tuberculosis in 1935, James II set up The James Irvine Foundation ,

69-451: A charitable organization to hold controlling stock in the Irvine Company. When James II died in 1947, Myford Plum Irvine (1898–1959), James II's only surviving child, took over the presidency of the Irvine Company. Flint, Bixby %26 Company The Bixby land companies were a group of California-based land companies founded by various members of the Bixby and Flint families from Maine. In

92-445: A section of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana , with James Irvine (1827–1886) as a silent partner. These three contiguous parcels totaled over 100,000 acres. In the 1870s, Flint, Bixby sold these properties to Irvine. In 1866 Flint, Bixby expanded further, buying the 27,000-acre Rancho Los Cerritos . Jotham was the manager of Rancho Los Cerritos and later bought a half interest in it through his own firm, J. Bixby & Company . By

115-616: A wealthy man. Irvine also became a silent partner in the sheep-raising venture Flint, Bixby & Company of brothers Thomas and Benjamin Flint, and their cousin Llewellyn Bixby . The purchase of the 48,800-acre (197 km ) Rancho San Joaquin in 1864 and the 47,200-acre (191 km ) Rancho Lomas de Santiago in 1866 marked the beginning of their operations in Southern California. In 1867, Irvine married Henrietta Maria (Nettie) Rice,

138-498: Is now Orange County . Upon his father's death, James Irvine inherited the land, which at the time was used as a stock ranch, and turned it into one of the largest, most productive agricultural enterprises in the state. In response to the Great Depression , James Irvine decided to establish a foundation in 1937 that would promote the "general well-being of the citizens and residents of the state of California." The foundation became

161-455: The Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles . This three-way partnership operated as J. W. Bixby & Company . John managed the 29,000-acre ranch and lived there with his family. John died suddenly of appendicitis in 1887, as a result of which Rancho Los Alamitos was divided into thirds in 1891. J. Bixby & Company got the acreage that adjoined Rancho Los Cerritos, and this later became

184-644: The Irvine Company , the family played an important role in the development of Orange County . The city of Irvine and the University of California, Irvine take their name from the family. James Irvine (1827–1886) was born in County Down , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on December 27, 1827, the second to the youngest of nine children. When Ireland's potato crop failed in 1845, James Irvine and his younger brother William were among those who left for

207-724: The United States . The family name is Scottish, meaning that James would have been an Ulster Scot , or Scots-Irish . Irvine worked for two years in New York City . In 1848 Irvine went to join the California Gold Rush as a merchant and miner. In 1854, he purchased an interest in a San Francisco commission house on Front Street, operated by a relative, John Lyons. The business was renamed "Irvine & Co., wholesale produce and grocery merchants". He began investing his profits in income-producing San Francisco real estate and soon became

230-414: The 1870s, sheep ranching was in decline in southern California and Jotham Bixby began to sell off this land for development. In the 1870s, another cousin, John William Bixby, bought a portion of Rancho Canon de Santa Ana and began leasing part of Rancho Los Alamitos . Sometime between 1881 and 1883 he bought Rancho Los Alamitos with two partners, J. Bixby & Company and Isaias W. Hellman , founder of

253-462: The 1970s, the Irvine Foundation was forced to sell its shares in the company and diversify its holdings. When James Irvine died in 1947, his gift to the foundation was valued at $ 5.6 million. By 2022, these assets had grown to about 3.2 billion. Irvine family#James Irvine II The Irvine family of Southern California is a prominent Californian family of real estate developers. Through

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276-656: The Irvine Ranch. He was a member of the Bohemian Club , and kept a residence in San Francisco, at 2421 Pierce Street. He established the James Irvine Foundation in 1937, an entity dedicated to the "general well-being of the citizens and residents of the state of California." James II owned nearly a third of the land in present-day Orange County . The city of Irvine (formerly Myford) is named after him. He died of

299-560: The annual the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards to honor innovative Californians working to solve some of the state’s biggest challenges. James Irvine 's father was an Irish immigrant who arrived in San Francisco in 1849 during the California Gold Rush and established himself as a successful businessman. Later, he branched out geographically and acquired some 110,000 acres (450 km) of land in what

322-493: The daughter of prominent Cleveland, Ohio , educator, writer, poet, and Ohio State Senator Harvey Rice , who was a direct descendant of early Massachusetts Bay Colony settler Edmund Rice . Nettie died in 1874, and Irvine married Margaret Byrne in 1880. He died of Bright's disease on March 15, 1886, and is buried in Colma, California . James Harvey Irvine, Sr. (1867–1947), son of James Irvine I and Henrietta Maria (Nettie) Rice,

345-553: The first holdings of yet another company, the Bixby Land Company , founded in 1896. Part of the Bixby Land Company property was a sugar beet farm that was later redeveloped into the city of Los Alamitos. The banker Hellman received a southeastern section that became a housing development, and John's family kept the rest. When John died, he and his partners had already been planning to dissolve their partnership. While he

368-523: The first step in what would become a highly successful ranching enterprise. Together with Llewellyn's brother Jotham they went into business as Flint, Bixby & Company . In 1855, Flint, Bixby bought the 34,000-acre Rancho San Justo near what is now the town of Hollister in partnership with rancher William Welles Hollister . In 1858, the company bought the Hero-Huero Ranch near Paso Robles , and by 1859, they were running some 20,000 sheep on

391-664: The foundation made grants of $ 187.3 million in 2022. The foundation is based in San Francisco , with an office in Los Angeles . The current president and CEO of the James Irvine Foundation is Don Howard. In 2016, the foundation announced it would focus its grantmaking on expanding economic and political opportunity for Californians who are working but struggling with poverty. Grantmaking focuses on initiatives, instead of separate program areas, with specific outcome goals, timeline, and budgets. Irvine's grantmaking also includes

414-658: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, the firms of Flint, Bixby & Company , J. Bixby & Company , J. W. Bixby & Company, the Alamitos Land Company, and the Bixby Land Company controlled large swathes of California real estate, much of it derived from Mexican land grants . At various times their holdings included Rancho Los Cerritos , Rancho Los Alamitos , half of Rancho San Justo , and part of Rancho Palos Verdes together with other property in San Benito , Santa Barbara , and Los Angeles counties. Parts of

437-403: The other partners, and formed the Irvine Company . He married Frances Anita Plum in 1892, and they had three children, James Harvey "Jase" Irvine Jr. (1894–1935), Katharine Helena Irvine (1894–1920) and Myford Plum Irvine (1898–1959). In 1931, James II married Mrs. Kathryn Brown White, who died in 1950. James II lived in San Francisco until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , when he relocated to

460-491: The primary stockholder of the Irvine Company , which owned the Irvine Ranch . With the rapid growth of Southern California during the 1940s and 50s, The Irvine Company was under pressure to develop its property. But in contrast to the unplanned sprawl nearby, the company worked to ensure that development was well planned and included a range of uses on its property such as higher education and agriculture . Eventually, in

483-649: The ranches. The partnership with Hollister dissolved in 1861, with Flint, Bixby ultimately ending up with all the Rancho San Justo land east of the San Benito River . The business especially prospered as a result of the high demand for meat and wool during the Civil War . In 1864, Flint, Bixby started acquiring land in southern California, beginning with the Rancho San Joaquin , Rancho Lomas de Santiago , and

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506-562: The towns of Long Beach , Bellflower , Paramount , Signal Hill , Lakewood , and Los Alamitos emerged from former Bixby-held lands. The history of the land companies begins with the brothers Benjamin and Thomas Flint and their cousin Llewellyn Bixby, who left Maine for California in 1851, attracted by the Gold Rush . They turned from mining to ranching, and in 1852–53, the three cousins drove more than 2000 sheep from Ohio to California,

529-461: Was born October 16, 1867, in San Francisco. He was the grandson of Harvey Rice . James II's mother died when he was seven years old, and his father died when he was about eighteen. Between the time of James Irvine I's death in 1886 and James Irvine II's inheritance of the Southern California real estate holdings upon his twenty-fifth birthday in 1892, the properties were supervised by James Irvine I's brother, George Irvine. James II bought out Flint and

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