John Vaclav Broz ’42
John died Oct. 11, 1996, in Beaufort, S.C., after a long struggle with cancer of the esophagus. He retired in 1991 after a business career in export sales management.
John was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and was educated in his native country and in England before joining the class at the beginning of sophomore year. He graduated from the SPIA with high honors and was a member of Tower Club. He served in the OSS during WWII in Washington, D.C.
After the war he became involved in export sales, initially in NYC, before joining Monsanto in St. Louis, where he became manager of Far Eastern sales. He then moved back to NYC with the Foreign Trade Service Export & Publishing Co. as assistant manager. This was followed by a move to Cincinnati as v.p. of Industry Export Service Inc. Never comfortable with the corporate world, as he put it, he organized his own export sales company, John V. Broz Inc., moving it ultimately to Beaufort, S.C., where he was the longtime president and trustee of the Beaufort County Open Land Trust.
John was predeceased by his first and second wives, Margaret Stringfellow and Elizabeth G. Phillips. To his widow, Marguerite, to his daughter, Peggy, and to his grandchildren the class offers its warmest sympathies.
The Class of 1942
Paw in print
November 2025
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Comments
Jorge Robert
5 Years AgoIn Memory of John V. Broz
First, excuses for my English.
My father worked with Mr. Broz in El Salvador; he sold the products of Mr. Broz here in El Salvador. I met Mr. Broz and his wife when I was a child and they visited El Salvador. Years later I went to work with my father and kept in touch with Mr. Broz.
In 1998 I visited South Carolina, visited his wife and went to the place where his body rests.
I have great memories of that great man and the great help he gave to my father when he started his business here in El Salvador.
If you know someone from his family, please inform him that in this small country, we still remember him, and we have great appreciation for what he was and his memory.