Bill Gates 2nd-Richest Man in U.S.
The Associated Press
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
October 7, 1991
Sure the recession hurt some of America's wealthiest people. But most just kept getting richer.
Entertainment mogul John Werner Kluge is worth more than any other American for the third straight year. But computer whiz Bill Gates of Seattle is closing the gap, moving from 16th place last year to No. 2, Forbes magazine said in its 10th annual ranking of the richest.
The net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans hit $288 billion - the highest ever recorded by Forbes.
The recession made ex-moguls of some, mostly in real estate where values have dropped and vacancies skyrocketed, Forbes said in a report released yester-day. A record 71 billionaires populate the list, up from 66 last year and 13 in the magazine's first ranking in 1982.
Forty-seven names were dropped this year. Six died, including Sen. John Heinz III, who was killed in a plane crash, and CBS tycoon William S. Paley. Fifty-eight of the 400 are women. The list's average age is 64.
While some fortunes dwindled, only one truly household name left the list: chicken man Frank Perdue. Forbes said he slipped because the magazine had overestimated his wealth.
The combined wealth of the richest was $288 billion - an average $720 million per person. That is enough to erase the fiscal year 1991 federal deficit and still have enough to fund the $6.4 billion in extra unemployment benefits President Bush plans to veto.
Forbes found that the fortune of Kluge, a 77-year-old German immigrant who founded Metromedia Co., keeps on growing. At an estimated $5.9 billion, it's up $300 million from last year.
No. 2 is William Henry Gates III, 35, a Harvard dropout who in 1975 formed Microsoft, now the biggest computer software maker. The bulk of his estimated worth of $4.8 billion comes from company stock, Forbes said. Last year, he ranked 16th with $2.5 billion.
Gates replaces Warren Buffett, the Nebraska investor who was tapped to clean up scandal-tainted Salomon Inc. Buffett's estimated stock-market fortune grew to $4.2 billion from $3.3 billion, but he slipped to eighth on the list.
Ahead of him are Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Moore Walton and his family. Walton divided his wealth equally among himself and his four children. Each is estimated to be worth $4.4 billion.
Next are industrialist Henry Lea Hillman, $3.3 billion; Amway Corp. partners Richard Marvin DeVos and Jay Van Andel, $2.9 billion each; and publishing brothers Samuel I. Newhouse Jr. and Donald E. Newhouse, $2.8 billion apiece.
The magazine said financier Michael Milken's criminal guilty plea didn't erase his junk-bond driven fortune. He's "making about 30 cents an hour at prison labor, to add to net worth estimated over $700 million," Forbes said.
The real-estate departures include New York's Peter Kalikow, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; Boston's Harold Brown, who restructured debt after a Chapter 11 filing; and New York's Mortimer Zuckerman.
Washingtonians
Rank nationally and wealth in millions:
2. William Gates III, $4,800, Seattle, Microsoft.
16. Paul Allen, $2,400, Mercer Island, Microsoft.
88. Steven Ballmer, $850, Bellevue, Microsoft.
156. John Edson, $525, Seattle, manufacturing.
181. Craig McCaw, $480, Bellevue, McCaw Cellular.
277. John McCaw, $360, Seattle, McCaw Cellular.
296. Norton Clapp, $350, Seattle, inheritance (Weyerhaeuser).
299. Keith McCaw, $345, Seattle, McCaw Cellular.
305. Bruce McCaw, $340, Seattle, McCaw Cellular.
Copyright 1991