A publishing executive who made millions and then gave it away to schools, hospitals and people down on their luck, John Nasseff was a wealthy philanthropist who rose from poverty to become a pillar of St. Paul's business community.
A singular character in the city's history, he spent five decades at West Publishing and retired as a board member and vice president despite not having more than a ninth-grade education. He was known for his generosity, dapper sense of fashion and for living the classic American story of rising through his own hard work.
Nasseff died Feb. 21, the day he turned 94, at his St. Paul home.
A family history written by Jacqueline Nasseff Hilgert told the story of Nasseff's parents, Betros and Zmorroud, and their emigration from Lebanon. Hoping for a new life in America, Betros undertook an arduous, yearslong journey before eventually reaching Mexico City, where Zmorroud joined him. They then traveled to St. Paul to be near Betros' brother and began their new life on St. Paul's West Side.
John Nasseff was born in 1924 and shared a bed with his brother, Art, in their tar-paper-sided house. His mother instilled in him a deep sense of charity. Old clothes purchased by the pound were the children's wardrobe, but the best finds were shipped off to Lebanon for needy children there.
He was a restless child, running away to New York City at age 12 by hopping freight cars. His father warmly welcomed him back home when he returned.
He left school in the ninth grade to work. He shipped out from Union Station in 1943 for the Pacific front during World War II.
It was when he came home after the war that one of Nasseff's brothers helped him get a job unloading boxcars at West Publishing. Nasseff rose through the company's ranks over the next 50 years and was instrumental in helping the company move from downtown St. Paul to Eagan. West was sold to Thomson Reuters in 1996, and Nasseff's long history of buying West shares netted him about $175 million in the sale.
