Jack Dreyfus

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John Dreyfus Sr. (1913-TK) A graduate of Lehigh University, Jack Dreyfus was the founder of the Dreyfus Fund and is widely publicized for being the man who "invented" the commonplace mutual fund through direct marketing to the public.[1] His early television commercials featuring a lion emerging from the Wall Street subway station were very successful.^{[citation needed]}

After selling the fund during the early 1970s, Dreyfus became a major proponent of phenytoin as a means to control nervousness and depression when he received a prescription for Dilantin in 1966. Dreyfus' book about his experience with phenytoin, A Remarkable Medicine Has Been Overlooked, sits on the shelves of many physicians courtesy of the work of his foundation. Despite well over $100 million in personal financing, his push to see phenytoin evaluated for alternative uses has had little lasting effect on the medical community.^{[citation needed]} This was partially due to Parke-Davis's reluctance to invest in a drug nearing the end of its patent life and partially due to results from various studies.

In the 1980s, Mr. Dreyfus sent a copy of his book to every doctor in the US, with little effect.^{[citation needed]}

He was briefly married to Joan Personette, from whom he was divorced in the early 1940s; they had one child, John (Jonny).

His paternal grandfather was a first cousin of Alfred Dreyfus, the protagonist of the 19th-century anti-Semitic scandal known as the Dreyfus affair.