J. J. LYNN, who gave a million dollars in railroad stock to the Self Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, is known as "Jimmy" Lynn downtown, where few indeed are closely acquainted with this quite unusual man.
He was "Jimmy" Lynn because of his youthful, alert appearance, springy of step and bare-headed, when he early became conspicuously successful. He was ruddy of complexion, with thinning hair, a quick smile, always hatless. He wore an open shirt without necktie.
He didn't appear to be a millionaire but mentally he was lightning quick in preception and was magic with figures. This attracted the attention of U. S. Epperson and before he was 30, Lynn headed the Epperson Insurance underwriting concerns.
Lynn himself has said two factors brought him his great financial success. Timing was one. Ahead of present-day tax laws, he was able to buy a large business and pay for it out of profits. The deal with Mr. Epperson naturally called for a sizable equity down payment. He had a friend who advanced this amount in cash.
That friend at the needful moment was the late E. F. Swinney of the First National bank. This borrowing could not qualify as a bank loan. Swinney, watchful of a dollar though he was, advanced the money out of his own pocket. He, too, was paid back out of earnings from the expanding and profitable business Lynn acquired.
Lynn is several times a millionaire. Swinney, who left an estate of 3 million dollars, once remarked to this reporter, that of "Jimmy" Lynn, the young, man he had lent helpful dollars had passed him in wealth by two or three times... That, too, was several years ago.
Thirty years ago Lynn had a 9-hole golf course on his within-the-city estate south of Sixty-third street and north of Meyer boulevard. Swinney loved to play the short course and when the banker had to forego golf, the course was abandoned.
But a noteworthy party was held on the Lynn estate in 1932, the seventy-fifth birthday celebration for Banker Swinney. About seventy-five guests were present, among them Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the late commissioner if baseball; Mellville Taylor, at that time president of the First National bank of Chicago, and the late Bishop Thomas F. Lillis. On that day Swinney shot a 76 for eighteen holes. He had aimed to shoot his years, 75.
Lynn always has been a guardian of his good health. He long was accustomed to remove his shoes before settling down to the routine of dictating his business correspondence
Even in midsummer he kept daybreak rendezvous with the rising sun with calisthenics in the privacy of his grounds. Then he was wont to romp like a boy. Or he would stand on his head, safe by wooded grounds from observation.
Apart from his business Lynn's top interest for a considerable time has centered in the Fellowship group in Los Angeles. There under the name of Rajasi Janakananda, Lynn has been president of the group the last two years.
Paramhansa Yogananda, born in India and author of the "Autobiography of a Yogi," founded the organization in 1920. He died in Los Angeles two years ago.
Lynn is in Good Samaritan hospital in Los Angeles where he underwent a second operation April 28.
