John Randolph

John Randolph Hearst (September 26, 1909 – November 13, 1958) was an American business executive best known as the third son of the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Born in the Virgin Islands, he grew up amid the sprawling media empire that his father built, receiving a privileged education and early exposure to the inner workings of the Hearst Corporation. Unlike many of his siblings, Randolph demonstrated a keen aptitude for management, quickly rising through the corporate ranks in the 1930s and earning a reputation for sharp financial instincts and a pragmatic approach to the family’s newspaper and broadcasting holdings. Throughout his career he was tasked with overseeing several regional publications, negotiating advertising contracts, and modernizing operational procedures, roles that positioned him as the most promising of William’s sons in the eyes of the board of trustees. His professional ascent, however, was shadowed by a turbulent personal life; he married three times, first to Dorothy Hart Hearst, a union that collapsed amid allegations of extreme cruelty and a 1932 divorce, then to Gretchen Wilson Hearst, whose 1938 divorce granted her custody of their son John Randolph Hearst Jr., and finally to Fanne Wade Hearst, with whom he purchased the former Henry Anderson estate in Flower Hill, New York, in 1946. Randolph fathered four children, two of whom—John Jr. and William Randolph Hearst II—continued the family’s involvement in the corporation. His untimely death from a heart attack at age forty‑nine while vacationing in the Virgin Islands abruptly ended a career that many historians view as a missed opportunity for a younger, more dynamic voice within the Hearst conglomerate. In retrospect, his legacy is intertwined with the complex dynamics of a powerful media dynasty, illustrating how personal ambitions and family expectations can both propel and constrain an individual’s professional trajectory.