
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994                   TAG: 9403050085
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JOHN HANCOCK - ON JOHN HANCOCK

Here are some things John Hancock had to say over the years about himself, and the Roanoke Valley. These quotes were taken from an 1987 interview.

\ "Once you have taken care of your family, money is only good for two things - one is to spend and [the other] is to give away. And you can only spend so much without being an ass .\ . . . Plus, there's an awful lot of pleasure to be derived from giving money away if you don't need it."

- on his contributions to civic causes.

\ "Nonsense!"

- on being told that many considered him the most powerful person in the Roanoke Valley.

\ "I must say I'm prouder of that than anything else."

- on his role in helping peacefully integrate Roanoke's lunch counters in 1960.

\ "I think anybody, any sensible reasonable citizen who offers himself to the public for public service, deserves a little support. It doesn't make any difference what party. Doesn't that make sense?"

- on why he regularly contributed to political candidates in both parties.

\ "What's wrong with Roanoke? I think first you got to figure out what in the hell you want, where we want to go. Do we want these great big industries coming in here and then you have a hard time, like the Viscose did and the Norfolk and Western did, and sew the town upside down? Or do we want to go along as we're going now [attracting smaller companies]. What I'm trying to tell you is we've had a good, steady growth - small industries, small business."

\ "The best place to live in the world."

- Roanoke.

\ "Ninety-five percent of every successful man's success is luck; the rest is hard work."

by CNB