Jerry Lohr

In 2013, Lohr's son, Steve Lohr, succeeded his father as CEO of J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines. Jerry Lohr continues his work as an advocate, philanthropist, and educator in the wine industry and at his alma mater, SDSU.

In 2009, Lohr married Jolene Johnson Barber, whom he dated while attending SDSU. They were married at Jolene’s church in Garretson, South Dakota.

Donations to National Breast Cancer Foundation in honor of his late wife, Carol, are one of several philanthropic efforts. Lohr has focused much of his philanthropy on his alma mater, SDSU. He contributed to building projects on campus, including $4 million in 2003 to rebuild Stolberg Hall, home of the College of Engineering, where Lohr did most of his studying. In 2004, Lohr’s $2.3 million donation built the Jerome J. Lohr Building at the SDSU Foundation. Lohr raised $254 million for other building projects on campus in 2013. In the same year, SDSU named the engineering building the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. Lohr was a donor to the UC Davis LEED Platinum Research and Teaching Winery at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. In 2021, Lohr donated $5 million to the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering's endowment. In 2021, Lohr donated $2.5 million to fund the Justin and J. Lohr Center for Wine and Viticulture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

In 1976, Lohr was among the original donors for the new Alumni Center at SDSU. Lohr joined the SDSU Foundation in 1987 and served as its chairman from 1992 to 1994. He funded the Jerome J. Lohr Award for Volunteer Leadership.

In 1975, Lohr co-founded and was later chairman of Monterey County Winegrowers, which eventually became Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association. Lohr is a former director and chairman of Wine Institute and was a founding member of Wine Vision, which promoted making wine more a part of American culture. Lohr also was founding chairman and former director of the National Grape and Wine Initiative, now NGRA, or National Grape Research Alliance.

Before leaving Ames, Lohr realized that the population of what is known today as Silicon Valley was expanding and that people would need more homes. He partnered with Bernie Turgeon to create Saratoga Foothills Development Corp., a custom home building business, in 1965. From 1963 to 2003, Lohr’s homebuilding business built over 900 custom homes and 15 apartment and condominium projects in Santa Clara, Alameda, and Monterey counties.

Lohr was honorably discharged, with the rank of captain, from the U.S. Air Force in 1964. He continued as a civilian research scientist at NASA Ames until 1967, focusing on “heat shield technology” for crewed U.S. spacecraft, including the Apollo 11 mission in which man landed on the moon in 1969. Lohr also focused on improving the efficiency of solar panels that powered satellites. Lohr earned a U.S. patent in his name for his “energy damper system” to reduce that oscillation.

After pursuing a Ph.D. in civil engineering at Stanford University until 1961, Lohr began active-duty service for the U.S. Air Force and served as a research scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

During the late 1960s, Lohr began a decades-long investigation into the winegrowing regions of California. Lohr developed his first 280-acre vineyard in the Arroyo Seco region of Monterey County in 1972. He is credited as being among the first to realize the potential of Monterey County’s soil and climate for growing white wine grapes. In 1986, Lohr expanded operations to the Paso Robles AVA of California by planting Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and other red varieties.

Lohr lives in Saratoga, California, where he lived with his first wife, Carol Waldorf Lohr. They met when they both attended Stanford University and married in 1959. Lohr had three children with Carol; Steve, Cynthia, and Lawrence, all of whom share ownership of and manage J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines. Carol Waldorf Lohr died in 2008 from breast cancer. Jerry and the Lohr family have released two wine brands highlighting "Carol's Vineyard", the vineyard named after her in the St. Helena appellation of Napa Valley.

Lohr worked part-time as a surveyor during college for J.T. Banner and Associates, an engineering and consulting firm. In 1958, Lohr earned a degree in civil engineering from South Dakota State College, now South Dakota State University (SDSU). He then earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Stanford University in 1959.

During his freshman year, he joined the Air Force ROTC program at SDSU, a requirement for males in the 1950s. Lohr was named Distinguished Air Force Cadet in the ROTC program. U.S. Senator Karl Mundt nominated Lohr for admission to West Point. South Dakota Rep. Harold Lovre nominated Lohr for admission to the Naval Academy. Lohr declined the invitations and continued his studies at SDSU.

Jerome Julian Lohr (born January 1st, 1937) is an American real estate developer, agriculturist, and winegrower. Lohr is the founder of J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, a winegrowing, and winemaking company based in San Jose, California. J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines operates vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Seco AVA in Monterey County, and the St. Helena AVA in Napa Valley, California. Lohr has earned a reputation as a pioneer of winegrowing on the Central Coast of California. The Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering opened at South Dakota State University (SDSU) in June 2013 in his honor.