John T. “Jack” Lupton, a Coca-Cola bottling magnate whose philanthropy drove Chattanooga’s renaissance in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, died Sunday, May 16, 2010, at his Lookout Mountain home. He was 83.
Lupton was the grandson of one of the three Chattanoogans who acquired bottling rights for Coca-Cola in 1899. His family’s company, JTL Corp., was the world’s largest soft drink bottling companies in the 1970s and 1980s. When it became clear that none of his four children wished to take over the business, Lupton sold it in 1986 for $1.2 billion.
He was the prime mover behind the construction of the Tennessee Aquarium, the Tennessee Riverwalk and The Honors Course. In 2001, he gave $25 million to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — at the time, the largest cash contribution to public higher education in Tennessee.
Then-U.S. Sen. Bob Corker called Lupton a mentor and friend.