James Cash Penney - Affiliations

Affiliations

Penney was a Freemason most of his adult life, being Initiated into Wasatch Lodge No. 1 Free and Accepted Masons of Utah, on April 18, 1911. A member of both the Scottish and York Rites Penney was coroneted a 33rd Degree on October 16, 1945, and received the Gold Distinguished Service Award by the General Grand Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, in Kansas City, Missouri in 1958.

Penney was involved with the founding of the University of Miami and served on its Board of Trustees from 1926 to 1930.

During the Great Depression, Penney teamed with Thomas J. Watson, President and Founder of IBM, Arthur Godfrey, the radio and TV personality; and Norman Vincent Peale, a minister, inspirational speaker, and author of The Power of Positive Thinking, to form the first board of 40Plus, an organization that helps unemployed managers and executives. Penney was also member of two professional fraternities: Alpha Gamma Rho and Alpha Kappa Psi.

Penney founded the James C. Penney Foundation in 1954. The foundation was restructured in 1999 as the Penney Family Fund, and is no longer affiliated with J.C. Penney Co., Inc. or its corporate giving program. Today, the fund is part of the Common Counsel Foundation, an Oakland, California based consortium of family philanthropic foundations and individual donors. The Penney Family Fund endows organizations in Oregon, California, and Washington state that work to advance human rights, community social, political, and economic empowerment, government accountability, and environmental sustainability.