John Warhola

Who was John Warhola?

Ján Varhola, Americanized as John Warhola, played a pivotal role in maintaining the legacy of his younger brother, pop artist Andy Warhol, assigned responsibility by their father on his deathbed to ensure that Andy attended college and serving as a trustee of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts after his brother's death in 1987. Warhola oversaw the establishment of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce, Slovakia.

Warhola was born May 31, 1925, in Pittsburgh, the second of three sons of Andrey and Julia Warhola. Shortly before his death in 1942, his father asked Warhola to take responsibility for Andy's college education. Warhola's son recalled that his grandfather had said that "Your role is to take care of Andy and make sure he goes to school, because he's going to be successful someday". Warhola attended vocational school himself and used the proceeds of savings bonds that his father had set aside to pay for Andy's first two years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and used the money he earned at a series of jobs to pay for Andy's final two years in college.