The Schiff Legacy Lives On
In the mid-1990s, the Naval Academy asked the Naval Institute to relocate its headquarters from Preble Hall to the old hospital on the Academy yard. When longtime Member John J. “Jack” Schiff of Cincinnati, already the Institute’s top supporter, assumed the lead-donor role in the renovation project, he was offered the opportunity to have the Institute’s new building named after him. He would not hear of it, believing instead that it should be named in honor of a naval hero and suggested Captain Edward “Ned” Beach and his father (also Captain Edward Beach). The Institute’s move to Beach Hall was accomplished in February 1999, though sadly without the project’s biggest champion, as Jack Schiff passed away in October 1998.
He was typically modest about his own service. An Ohio State University graduate, Schiff left a promising insurance business in March 1942 to serve his country and was commissioned as a naval officer. Among other duties, he participated in the complex logistical preparations for the D-Day invasion and was present for the liberation of Paris. After returning to civilian life in January 1946, he founded The Cincinnati Insurance Company in 1950, which became a highly successful insurance and financial powerhouse he built from the ground up. He may have left the service, but his loyalty and dedication to the Navy remained hallmarks throughout his life.
The esteem in which the Naval Institute holds Jack Schiff cannot be overstated—and the testament of his devotion to the Institute is the Schiff family’s continuing support. Their underwriting of a major technology refresh truly suits the purposes and future of the Naval Institute.
The world is experiencing a revolution in information technology, in publishing, and in the way people absorb information. Bookstores are closing, and a paper-based world is quickly changing into a digital universe held in the palm of your hand or seen on an oversized interactive flat screen. Meanwhile, the Naval Institute is enrolling thousands of midshipmen and cadets as student Members and is working up and down the chain of command to invigorate its value for serving naval professionals. These young people are power-users of new technologies. Technology now dictates their expectations, and they expect our communication to be seamless, constant, and instantaneous.
Thus far, the Institute has managed to thrive in this new environment: pacing technology, rolling out effective new channels, and dominating its competition. Over the past few years, the Institute has moved aggressively into the digital world with more than 350 e-Books, a Naval Institute mobile app, an award-winning blog, and the USNI News site. Additionally, the Institute has emerged as a multi-media content production company. As a result, the importance of technology to the Institute has grown exponentially.
Going forward, our publishing work will be “born” digitally, and thanks to Jack Schiff the Naval Institute will have the infrastructure needed to engage and grow with the rising generation. With this new technology, internal content development and workflow surrounding our new multimedia environment will flourish, without the limitations of outdated hardware, networks, and sharing capabilities. Our growing and increasingly youthful audience has come to expect a certain level of technology in both content and delivery. Their judgment of our relevancy often depends on the technological “tools” we can integrate. Through state-of-the-art technology upgrades, we can and will deliver.
Advancing the Next Generation of Naval Leaders
The following is an update on sponsored Naval Institute membership for Sea Service midshipmen and cadets to date for the 2013–2014 academic year:
• NROTC Units: 20 of 58 sponsored
• U.S. Naval Academy Companies: 12 of 30 sponsored
• U.S. Coast Guard Academy Companies: 8 of 8 sponsored
• U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Companies: 0 of 5 sponsored
For more information and to sponsor midshipmen at your alma mater, please visit www.usni.org/donate-student-memberships or contact Heather Lancaster at (410) 295-1048 or at [email protected].