Page 56 - Speedhorse August 2018

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John Andreini, 90, a Life of Service.
This profile on John Andreini was obtained just prior to his passing on July 27. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to have visited with such a great man.
F e w people will be able to look back on their lives with as great a sense of accomplishment as John Andreini.
After founding and establishing Andreini and Company — now one of the top 50 independently owned insurance brokerage firms in the United States, where he still plays an active role as founder, CEO and chairman of the board — John Andreini built JL Ranch, an admirable breeding, racing and cattle operation.
During those ensuing years, he also served
as Governor Schwarzenegger’s appointee to the California Horse Racing Board and in various roles in the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association (PCQHRA).
In addition, he established a successful wine-grape farming operation, and developed real estate as well. And, just last year, he added racetrack owner to his resume when he became part of the four-man partnership that bought Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino and Ruidoso Horse Sales.
he is, the better he likes it. He never makes excuses and never complains. He’s always there when he says he will be, and you always know where you stand with him. He’s not afraid to let people know his opinion — and I like people like that.”
“He’s an amazing individual,” adds former jockey and trainer Danny Cardoza, who now manages Andreini’s 2,600-acre JL Ranch in Paicines, California. “I’ve never known anybody like him before. He’s up on everything going
on in the world and if you want to talk about something, I don’t care if it’s one of the Supreme Court justices, he knows all about it.”
HIS EARLY YEARS
Perhaps Andreini’s all-encompassing sense of curiosity and interest comes from a combination of nature and nurture. His father, Giovanni, was born in Florence, Italy, in 1888 and graduated from the University of Rome, then became a professor of philosophy before immigrating
to the United States before World War I, marrying Andreini’s mother, Mildred, during the depression, and raising four sons and one daughter — the oldest being John.
Andreini attended a Catholic high school until his mother passed away when he was 16.
His father then enrolled him in San Mateo High School. “I’d never been in a school with girls before and I forgot how to study,” Andreini says.
With World War II raging, he and several friends tried to enlist, but the Marine Corps rejected him due to an injury. Instead, he spent two years in the Merchant Marines. “In those days, everyone was volunteering,” Andreini says. “The level of patriotism in this country was something like I’ve never seen since.
“I went to Bellingham, Washington, when I was 17 and signed on to the ship like I was going to the public library — there were no papers to sign, they just wanted people to man those ships. Off we went. We had 4,000 troops on our ship and we went to Iwo Jima.”
He fulfilled his contract about six months after the war was over. When he got home at age 19, he married — against his father’s wishes — then took night classes at Golden Gate College.
By the time he’d had two children and another on the way, he quit school to provide for his family. “I had two or three jobs, and
I kind of scrambled my way through life,
and here I am,” he says. “I’ve never forgiven myself for not going further in school, but it was just impossible.”
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horse partner Vince Genco
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old now and he still goes like a
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the time. I’m 68 and I don’t get
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sed to, but it seems the busier SPEEDHORSE, August 2018
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