Securing Vinson Hall’s Future

When you start out in life, you never really know where “home” will end up being. For Jack Hannon, a devoted Brooklyn Dodgers fan who grew up near Prospect Park playing stickball in the streets, “home” ended up being McLean, Virginia, at Vinson Hall Retirement Community.

“We’ve lived in McLean more than 50 years now, and have lived in our Willow Oak apartment at VHRC for the last decade. This is our home now,” says Jack. Which is why Jack and his wife Lorraine decided to give a planned gift to Navy Marine Coast Guard Residence Foundation.

The Hannons’ journey to finding Vinson Hall Retirement Community took some twists and turns along the way, as most life journeys do. After college, Jack served four years as a Navy Air Intelligence Officer on the U.S.S. Hancock during some of the first sustained operations of the Vietnam War. “My job was to give pilots intelligence that would help them find their targets a nd survive, a sobering responsibility,” he recalls.

During his service and while stationed in Lemore, California, Jack met Lorraine, a dietitian working in a hospital in Berkeley. Deployment to the Pacific and then law school at the University of Virginia kept them apart for months at a time, “but we really got to know each other from our letters, which we still have.” Midway through law school, the couple married. “Lorraine worked us through the rest of law school,” says Jack, adding with a smile: “She says it was the best investment she ever made.”

In 1971, the Hannons moved to McLean for a job offer Jack had with Communications Satellite Corporation. “COMSAT was just getting started, authorized by an act of Congress as one of their responses to Sputnik,” says Jack. “It was exciting work in those early years.” Jack stayed on at COMSAT for 28 years—a career story almost no one can tell anymore—and the Hannons raised their family in McLean. When it came time for retirement, VHRC—right in town and close to their grown daughter—was an easy decision, and one they are happy they made. “We really like our apartment. We’ve made many great friends here. And we enjoy the programs; Lorraine is one of the original artists in Mel Mobley’s program, and I was one of the original photography students.”

VHRC’s military connection was another draw. “I can say that the group I worked with in my squadron was the finest group of men that I’ve ever been associated with, so I knew the residents would be very solid,” he says.

The Hannons’ planned gift to the Navy Marine Coast Guard Residence Foundation comes from an IRA “devoted solely to charity, and it sits alongside the one that’s for our children,” says Jack. The importance of planned giving is something he understands well, having led the planned giving program at St. Johns Episcopal Church in McLean for the past 24 years.

“A planned gift is a way to give that doesn’t change your cash flow, but is going to do a lot of good for whatever entity you designate. Our planned gift, added to those of other current and future residents over time, will help ensure that Vinson Hall has adequate resources to weather the storms that may arise in the future.”

And you never know what the future holds. Looking back, Jack recalls his early days in McLean, when the Cole Bros Clyde Beatty Circus used to set up their Big Top in an open field near the center of town, which is now filled with townhouses. “When you think of that much open land in McLean 50 years ago compared to now, there’s obviously been massive change. Who knows what Vinson Hall will be encountering 50 years from now?”

As Jack sees it, “Planned giving funds provide a hedge to windward for the operation of this place. We just want a good thing to continue long into the future.”