Jacobus "Jack" E. de Vries

Jacobus E. (Jack) de Vries passed away on June 21, 2025.
Jack was born on October 24, 1934 in what is now Jakarta, Indonesia, to
Egbert de Vries and Tine Berg de Vries who moved to the Dutch East
Indies from Holland in the 1920s. Jack was the youngest of four
children; his brothers Jan Roel and Egbert and sister Rean de Vries have
pre-deceased him.

Jack’s entire family was imprisoned by the Japanese on Java during
WWII. His mother died of starvation but his father survived torture by
the Kempei tai. Jack was ten years old when he was released from his
camp after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. He had missed three years
of schooling in the camps. Upon evacuation to Holland, the de Vries
family moved to The Hague and Professor de Vries re-married. Jack’s
step-mother, Lexie Zweede was also widowed during the War on Java
and survived with her three children, Alexander, Annelies and Johan.
In 1950, when Jack’s father joined the World Bank in Washington DC,
Jack found himself struggling to learn English and make up for the years
of missed education.

After two years in the US Army, Jack was
surprised to find himself at Harvard College where he graduated with
honors in 1961. After graduating from the Harvard Business School, he
joined the management consulting firm of McKinsey in New York and
eventually moved to Wall Street as a Research Analyst and eventually as
Managing Director in Mergers and Acquisitions at Wm. Sword and
Ardshiel Associates. In 1972 he founded his own M&A boutique,
Morris Capital, specializing in the sale of privately owned companies.

Jack leaves behind his daughter Margot Kenaston, son-in-law, Matthew,
and their daughters, Charlie and Sydney. Jack is also survived by his
beloved partner, Vera Graye, who shared his life in Fearrington Village,
NC since 2007.

Jack moved to North Carolina from Morristown, New Jersey in 2006.
He was active in community affairs at Fearrington Village and published
his memoir “Sunset Over Java” in 2015.