Marriage and Family

John L Loeb Jr - The Autobiography: Reflections, Memories, and Confessions

John has been married three times. In 1960, he married Nina Sundby, with whom he had a daughter, Alexandra Loeb Driscoll (who is married to Joseph Edward Driscoll and has two children, Aidan Edward and Allegra Frances Driscoll). His second wife was Meta Martindell Harrsen, with whom he had a son, Nicholas Mears Loeb. In 2012, John married his wife, Sharon J. Handler.

Sharon J. Handler Loeb married John on January 12, 2012. The daughter of Jerry and Lyn Handler of Scarsdale, NY, Sharon graduated summa cum laude and Phi beta Kappa from Tufts University and as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar from Columbia Law School. She practiced law at Coudert Brothers, worked for the European Economic Community, for Italy’s SCR public relations firm, and established her own international consulting practice. Among her numerous philanthropic commitments, Sharon serves as chair of the Aspen Institute’s Brain Forum.

Alexandra Loeb Driscoll is a graduate of the Spence Day School for Girls, the Hotchkiss School and Harvard University, where she earned straight A’s in her art classes. Upon graduating from Harvard, she began working at Christie’s and then worked for art dealer John Good. In 1994, Alex married Joseph Driscoll, a Harvard MBA, businessman and political figure. Alex and Joe have provided John with, in his own words, “two glorious, adorable grandchildren”—Aidan, born September 29, 1998 and Allegra, born October 5, 2000. Aidan is currently a student at MIT and Allegra attends the Berklee College of Music.

Nicholas Mears Loeb attended the Collegiate School and Loomis Chaffee School. He also spent two years in Denmark where his father was posted as US Ambassador. In 1998, Nick graduated with a B.A. in Management and Finance from Tulane University. After college, he worked for Mike Nichols on the film Primary Colors and then produced and had a featured role in a movie called The Smokers. He was also a producer (along with Barbra Streisand) for the documentary PBS series The Living Century. He moved to Florida and worked with Lehman Brothers and later founded Carbon Solutions America, which provides climate change advisory services to corporate and government clients. In 2008, he served as finance co-chairman for Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential run. In 2011, Loeb decided against running for the United States Senate due to health issues stemming from severe injuries incurred in a car accident in 2010. In 2006 he formed Loeb’s Foods and in April 2011 he founded the Crunchy Condiment Company, which sells Onion Crunch, a fried onion topping, with products being sold in over 17,000 locations.


John L. Loeb Jr.