Golden Alumni	Class of 1934
Jack Goldstein
2008 article by Janet (Krider) Duncan) ‘58 & Joann (VanValkenburgh) Goldstein ‘58

Jack Goldstein, captain of his Lincoln, Nebraska High School debate team, thought he was only coming to Manhattan for the summer of 1933.  His father, Samuel Goldstein, was using his last dollars to try a new plan to make some money: buying cattle hides and pelts in small towns and then selling them in Kansas City.  Jack planned to go back to Lincoln in time for his Senior year, but his father needed him.  They lived in the Baltimore Hotel at 2nd and Poyntz, and through sheer hard work got a business going, the Kansas Hide and Wool Company.     When he opened the office at 210 N. Third St., Samuel Goldstein told Jack, “Sit down, you’re going to keep the books.”  Jack didn’t mind.  “I always was good with numbers,” he said.  Enrolling in Manhattan High School in the fall of ‘33, Jack studied with nearly perfect scholarship (at a time when he remembers, it was usually only the girls who made the perfect grades).  He quickly made a name for himself on the MHS Debate team and was the school representative for Extemporaneous speech.  Always with an avid interest in sports (born and raised in Lincoln, he loved football).  Jack participated in Intramurals at MHS.  After school, he worked.  Graduating in 1934, he was disappointed to not have been in the National Honor Society, as all his sisters were.     Jack looked at the 1934 Blue M showing he’d planned to become a lawyer.  He’d enrolled in Kansas State after MHS but it wasn’t to be.  There was not enough money and Kansas Hide and Wool still needed him.  Jack never shirked work or his duty.  An Eagle Scout in Lincoln, Jack had planned to become a scout leader after high school, but that, too, was not possible when 24-hour working days were all too common.  The Goldstein family finally joined the men in Manhattan when his younger sisters finished high school.  (“I was the meat in the sandwich,” Jack said, as the middle child and only boy.)  All four of Jack’s sisters graduated from college.     World War II took Jack away from the business, and he was proud to serve his country.  He remembers it clearly, listening to the radio with his draft notice in his hands when the bombing of Pearl Harbor was announced.  He worked in Army air operations and ended the war trained in navigation for B-24 bombers.  After the war, he resumed his position in Manhattan.  A few years after that, Sam Goldstein was killed in one of the company trucks and Jack was suddenly in charge of the company.  At that time they operated between five and ten trucks, “running all over”, Jack said, “buying cattle hides from butcher shops.”  In winter, they’d buy fur pelts they’d sell in the big Kansas City markets.  “It was a dirty, stinking business and it required a lot of labor,” he explained.  One day in the early 50s he was buying hides in Abilene when a welder asked if it was possible for him to bring back some pipe on his return trip.  The spark was struck for what became Steel Pipe and Supply Company.  “Steel is a nice clean business”, Jack said.  It was easier to find people to work and “all they needed was a pair of gloves.”     Kansas Hide and Wool was eased out after Sam Goldstein died and today, Steel Pipe and Supply has many trucks under contract.  They buy steel in bulk from mills, store it in their warehouses and then re-sell it in smaller quantities.   Good management and efficiency are the keys Jack Goldstein recognizes for success.  For many years the main warehouse remained on Third Street in Manhattan.  When Steel Pipe was unable to find a spot suitable to the City for a larger facility, they expanded regionally.  Their warehouses are now in Houston, Tulsa, St. Louis, Omaha and Kansas City.  The head offices remain in Manhattan, in the building Jack Goldstein built when the City needed investment in order to save the bonds for the Town Center Mall.  Jack is an unabashed supporter of the City of Manhattan.     As the largest private company in the city, the Steel Pipe and Supply offices radiate the quiet energy of salesmen on the phone dealing in steel and rolling mills and moving products to customers.  While Jack maintains control of the company stock, his employees also have a large share.  Employees who work for Steel Pipe & Supply for at least ten years can take advantage of a company program which pays tuition for their children to attend Kansas State.  Jack’s a complete supporter of KSU, was even through the lean years of Wildcat football.     The list of Jack Goldstein’s service to the City is long: on the Manhattan City Commission, President of the Jack Goldstein in his office, May 2008 Manhattan Rotary Club, a founding board member for the Manhattan Retirement Foundation and President of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Executive Board of the KSU Foundation, and a College of Business Administration Advisory Board member.   He has served as President of the Association of the United States Army for Ft. Riley and has been honored as the Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen of the Year.  He received the KSU College of Business Administration Distinguished Service Award and was the recipient of the Meadowlark Hills Foundation’s Manhattan Legacy Award.  Always a strong supporter of the Military, his table full of medals mark the appreciation for his years of service in a variety of capacities.  A steady supporter of the Arts, he has been a valued benefactor to the Library, is on the Board of the Beach Museum, and was one of the benefactors of the Johnny Kaw statue in City Park.  He and his first wife, Jean, began to collect art in their early years, and Jack has continued this activity with Joann, whom he married after Jean’s death.  He and Joann have been married for 26 years.  Childless himself, his charitable giving to Manhattan and Kansas State is legendary.  He continues to enlarge the Jack Goldstein Manhattan Charitable Foundation which gives to groups in the city every year.     Jack Goldstein, in his 92nd year, still goes to his office every day.  Picking up his stack of mail, he smoothly asked with the skill of the old MHS debater, “Are we finished with the past?  I’d lots rather talk about the future.”