Red Sox Integration Timeline Thomas Austin Yawkey was born in 1903 to Augusta Yawkey and Thomas Austin in Detroit, Michigan, but the family moved to New York City following the death of his father when Tom was just seven months old. There, he and his sister, Emma, were raised by his mother and her brother, William Yawkey. His uncle played an important part in his early development and impressed upon Tom two interests he would hold dear for the rest of his life: baseball and the great outdoors.
Tom’s uncle was the co-owner of the Detroit Tigers and introduced Tom to baseball at a young age. In 1914, William Yawkey purchased tracts of land in Georgetown County, South Carolina that were part of the South Island Hunting Club where he would take Tom to fish and hunt. Tom visited South Carolina frequently during his childhood and young adult years and developed a great respect for nature and wildlife.
Young Adulthood
In 1918, when Tom was 15, his mother died from the Spanish flu, a severe worldwide influenza pandemic. His Uncle William adopted him, and Tom’s last name was changed from Austin to Yawkey; sadly just six months later in 1919, his Uncle William also died from the Spanish flu.
Tom inherited half of the Yawkey family fortune, a considerable sum of $20 million that had been amassed through lumber and mining, as well as his uncle’s land in South Carolina that he purchased in 1914. The land at that time was called the South Island Hunting Club and had been used as hunting grounds since 1869.
Tom’s inheritance was put into two trusts that Tom would go on to receive at the ages of 25 and 30. Throughout the remainder of his teenage and young adult years, Tom was under the care of a guardian while attending boarding school in Tarrytown, New York before embarking upon engineering studies at Yale University. Tom graduated from Yale in 1925.
In 1926, Tom purchased the remaining tracts of land from the South Island Hunting Club in South Carolina. He spent as much as six months a year living there and immediately set about improving the land to protect the wildlife.
By the time he turned 30 in 1933, Tom was already in the process of purchasing the Boston Red Sox and completed the deal five days after his birthday.
Boston Red Sox
The version of the Boston Red Sox that Tom became the president and owner of was a far cry from the beloved franchise known today. At the time of Tom’s purchase, the Red Sox were one of the worst teams in the league, and Fenway Park was in desperate need of repair. Tom let his love of the game – and some expert help – guide him to building the best team possible.
Tom invested heavily into the renovation of Fenway Park, spending a total of $1.5 million on repairs, which was more than the $1.25 million purchase price of the team. The improvements he oversaw contributed to the signature look of the ballpark that fans still see today.
Tom revitalized the Red Sox by bringing on Hall of Famers to both manage and play, and a recruiting system was developed to find new talent. The reinvigorated team and ballpark attracted loyal fans, and the Red Sox went on to win the American League pennant in 1946, 1967, and 1975.
One of Tom’s most impactful accomplishments during his tenure as owner of the Red Sox was designating the Jimmy Fund the official charity of the team in 1953. Benefitting the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which provides childhood and adult cancer care and research, the Jimmy Fund became an integral part of the identity of the Boston Red Sox. Tom served as Board Chair of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Jimmy Fund for many years and encouraged the team’s players to champion the charity by participating in events hosted at Fenway Park to benefit the Jimmy Fund. As part of Tom’s remarkable legacy, the Jimmy Fund remains the official charity of the Red Sox nearly 70 years later.
Tom’s other contributions to baseball included his role as vice president of the American League from 1956 to 1973 and his support of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, to which he donated Red Sox collectibles and served on the board of directors. He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980 for his accomplishments as a baseball executive.
Doing What is Right
Although he would often lend out Fenway Park for community events and host youth at the ballpark for games, away from the stadium lights, Tom Yawkey was a private person who kept his life off the field largely private. For this reason, much of his personal giving is not well known by the public. Instead, it lives on in the stories passed down from those who interacted with him day to day, the people who lived and worked in the communities he called home in Boston, MA and Georgetown County, SC.
In addition to the anecdotes of Tom paying college tuition for a resident of the Georgetown County community where he spent winters, providing Christmas gifts for all the children in the community, or building a church for the area, there are the more well-known acts as well. In Georgetown County, Tom helped fund the construction of the area’s first major hospital and took on the cause of supporting wayward boys. In Boston, he lent support to Boston University’s athletics, helped establish the Agganis Foundation, supported the predecessor of the United Way for decades, and donated to the JFK Memorial Library.
Tom married his second wife, Jean Yawkey, in 1944. She was just as passionate about giving back to those in need, and together, they lived by the motto that one should, “Do what is right, do it quietly, and don’t expect praise for being kind.”
Tom remained the owner of the Red Sox until his death. When he died in 1976, he bequeathed the land he owned in Georgetown County to what is now the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. His will also established the Yawkey Foundation to fund the care of the land in perpetuity. The 20,000 acres of land he donated is now called the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center and spans more than 24,000 acres thanks to additional contributions from Jean. His gift is considered one of the largest contributions to wildlife conservation in North America, and the land remains a preserve dedicated to field research with limited human activity.
Jean became the owner of the Red Sox after Tom passed and continued the efforts she and Tom were always passionate about, including work with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The Yawkey Foundation was expanded by Jean in the 1980s to include more areas of giving that she and Tom cherished. The Foundation now supports nonprofit organizations in Boston and Georgetown County that are dedicated to health care, youth and amateur athletics, education, arts and culture, human services, and wildlife and conservation.
The legacy of Tom Yawkey lives on through the work of the Yawkey Foundation, those who knew and loved him, and the countless individuals touched by his contributions to baseball.