11 Of The Richest People In Dallas - Fort Worth And Here’s How They Did It
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Robin McClure
Author
The rich keep getting richer, at least in Dallas – Fort Worth. It’s no surprise that many of them live in the Metroplex, according to an annual ranking by Forbes. Several people also top the list as among the wealthiest in the nation. Here are the top 11 wealthiest Metroplex residents living the high life locally:
Walton resides in Millsap, a tiny ranching town west of Fort Worth. She also holds the title as the "Richest Woman in World." She is shown here with her sibling Jim.
Alice is the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. The extended Walton family today still owns more than half of Walmart.
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Beal attended Baylor University, but did not graduate. The Dallas resident is also a so-called math geek. In 1993, he developed the Beal Conjecture, a mathematical problem, and has offered $1 million to anyone who could solve it. As of today, 25 years since he made this challenge, no one has (yet) been successful at solving the equation! Trust us, many people are still trying.
Dallas-resident Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for $150 million and has since turned "America's Team" into a sports empire. He also invests in art as well as oil and real estate.
Today, despite of the team's record as of late, the Dallas Cowboys franchise is ranked as the most valuable NFL team, with a worth of around $4.2 billion.
Dallas local Robert Rowling sold off family oil and gas fields and re-pumped the proceeds into the Omni Hotels chain. He also purchased the Gold's Gym International, Inc. The billionaire is philanthropic as well; in 2013, he donated $25 million to the University of Texas business school.
Fort Worth local Robert Bass (and his brothers) inherited a family fortune. He is an investor, with a notable one being with Aerion, which hopes to build supersonic business jets.
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Dallas' Ray Hunt is known for his interests in oil and electric. .
The Hunt Oil Headquarters building was a striking addition to the downtown Dallas skyline.
This Dallas resident jump started Barnett Shale in North Texas as part of the shale fracking business.
His philanthropic projects through the Rees-Jones Foundation gave $19 million to establish the Rees-Jones Center for Foster Care Excellence at the Children's Medical Center in Plano. It serves as a primary care facility for children in the Texas foster care system. The clinic will serve 250 children a month and has an on-site Child Protective Services liaison.
Dallas resident Kelcy Warren grew up working with his dad as a welder's assistant on Sun Pipeline in Texas when not in school. His fortune stems from stakes in three publicly traded energy companies. He also produces albums for singer-songwriters at Music Road Records in Austin. In 2012, Warren donated around $10 million to the Klyde Warren Park, which he named after his son.
In 2017, the Perots moved their family office into new digs on Turtle Creek in Dallas. In 1962, he founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and made over $1.5 billion after selling it to G.M. in 1984. Other technology investments included Steve Jobs' NEXT computer company and the creation of Perot Systems (bought by Dell in 2009).
Dallas has benefited from the spectacular Perot Museum of Nature and Science, which opened in 2006.
The Bass brothers sold their oil company to Exxon Mobil in 2017 for $6 billion. Fort Worth's Sid Bass, while normally very low-profile, gained notoriety when he rescued Texas ice cream maker Blue Bell with a $125 million loan after a 2015 listeria outbreak threatened the future of the beloved ice cream brand. Production was halted for months afterward, which had put the company at risk for closure.
The Bass' family and its contributions to Fort Worth resulted in the stunning Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall. Nancy was commonly known as "The First Lady of Fort Worth." They are the parents of four sons: Lee, Ed, Robert, and Sid.
Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban earned his money by having the right idea at the right time: that people would respond positively to watching video over the web. His company was sold to Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.7 billion. Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks and has stakes in Landmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures, and AXS TV.
Did you know that the Metroplex is home to so many billionaires? This list is by no means exhaustive. In fact, seventeen local Texans have earned spots at the top of lists of the richest Americans.
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