Jay Van Andel - Early Life

Early Life

Van Andel was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1924. He met Richard DeVos in high school when Van Andel charged DeVos 25 cents for rides to school in his 1929 Model A Ford.

After high school, Van Andel enlisted in 1942 in the United States Army Air Corps as a private during World War II and came out four years later as a first lieutenant.

After returning from military service, Van Andel and DeVos teamed up on several business ventures, including a flight school, a drive-in restaurant, and an import business.

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