James J. Nance*

James Nance was born in 1900 in Portsmouth, Ohio, and raised on a farm. He served in World War I and then attended Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating in 1923. Nance then worked at National Cash Register and the Frigidaire division of General Motors before being named vice president of to the Zenith Radio Corporation in in 1940.

Next he became president of Hotpoint, Inc. and Studebaker-Packard Corp. Other positions that Nance held included chief executive of Central National Bank of Cleveland, chairman of the executive committee of Montgomery Ward, and chairman of the board of trustees of Cleveland State University.

Nance achieved a series of successes as a senior executive in industry, banking, and investments. After assuming his position as chairman and president of First Union Company in 1968, he built his real estate investment trust into one of the largest of those specializing in property ownership.