Billionaires Club

Hard work, ingenuity, and the state’s colleges and universities offer fertile ground for creating and sustaining multibillion-dollar fortunes.
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Billionaires Club Banner
Illustration by Martin Schmetzer

They’re breaking cycles and creating new ones while building wealth and leaving legacies. They’re also some of the richest people in the world, and they all have one thing in common: The Great Lakes State.

Some are household names, at least in metro Detroit: Martha Ford, Dan Gilbert, Marian Ilitch, Roger Penske, Stephen Ross, and Tom Monaghan. Others came to attend school
in Michigan and left to grow new fortunes
elsewhere.   

Of the 36 billionaires who either grew up in Michigan or attended school here — 10 additional billionaires have since passed away — DBusiness selected five capitalists who, together with their families, boast a net worth of more than $150 billion.

These individuals took long and divergent paths to reach the summit. Some got their start bagging groceries, while another delivered newspapers and yet another became a barber. Eventually, they plied their natural entrepreneurial gifts, combined them with grit, came together as only families can, leveraged the advantages of Michigan educational institutions, and created some of the most legendary tales of wealth imaginable.

CharlieMungerIllustration
Charlie Munger // Portrait Illustrations by Jon Stich

Richard DeVos, Alec and Tom Gores, Charlie Munger, Larry Page, and Dr. Homer Stryker built their fortunes — and substantially bolstered Michigan’s economy — in digital technology, consumer products, investment banking, medicine, and sports. Along the way, their vast influence has made an impact not only on the lives of generations of Michiganders, but also on millions of other Americans and hundreds of millions of consumers, citizens, and denizens worldwide.

There are three headliners in this group. DeVos co-founded Amway, the direct-sales giant that specializes in nutrition, beauty, personal care, and home products, and still sets the standard for effective direct-to-consumer branding of perishable goods. Not only did he essentially create the modern and still very effective engine of multilevel marketing, which has forged thousands of entrepreneurs over the decades, DeVos and his extended family have played a key role in national and state conservative politics.

Page became one of the true founders of the internet when he and Sergey Brin concocted Google. While others were obsessed with keyword searches and web listings, Page questioned why. He thought search results would be better listed based on their linkages and similarities, rather than keywords.

With his interest in web linkages and Brin’s data-mining skills, the pair wrote a combined dissertation, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” which led to the co-founding of the weirdly titled startup Google. Although they were still graduate students at Stanford University at the time, they became billionaires before age 30, during the company’s initial public offering.

Now, of course, Google reigns over digital tech in so many ways, and it’s become one of the most powerful companies ever born — easily a match for the oil barons and railroad magnates of old.

Homer Stryker forged a medical-equipment empire in the southwestern corner of Michigan out of the realization that he could combine world-leading, cutting-edge American engineering with brilliantly designed devices that could carry an aging population into their golden years. His early inventions, like the Wedge Turning Frame and the Circ-O-Lectric, later became the foundation for the Stryker Medical company.

LarryPageIllustration
Larry Page

Even the lesser-known lights among these billionaires tell remarkable tales of success. The Gores brothers each have their own investment firms that register nearly $40 billion in assets. While operating for decades with his higher-profile partner, Warren Buffett, Munger has been vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the most accomplished and followed investment banking firms in history.

“Everyone in my family went here, Michigan. My mother, my brother, my dad, all of us. …  My father’s father … was an assembly line worker. He drove his two children here to Ann Arbor and told them, ‘This is where you’re going to college.’”
—Larry Page

Before that, he founded his own law firm: Munger, Tolles, and Hills, which later became Munger, Tolles, and Olson. Over the last several decades, Munger and Buffet have grown the company into a multinational conglomerate that’s valued at $638 billion — a large feat for two men who grew up working in Buffett’s grandfather’s grocery store. Although they came from the same town and even worked in the same store, the six-year age gap prevented the partners from meeting until their 30s.

No better examples exist of what the iconic Peter Drucker, a management consultant and leadership observer, said is the key to entrepreneurship: “Entrepreneurs innovate,” Drucker wrote. “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship… (It) creates a resource. There is no such thing as a ‘resource’ until man finds a use for something in nature and thus endows it with economic value. Until then, every plant is a weed, and every mineral is just another rock.”

These billionaires have all found “plants and minerals” in their new ways of doing things and the risks they’ve taken to make them work. Take Munger, for instance: He was the one who taught Buffett to stop buying broken businesses because, as he said in a 2017 talk given at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, a lousy business’s reputation will precede itself, even after putting a good manager in place.

“Charlie’s unconventional way of thinking and his extraordinary work ethic — (are) the twin fonts of his amazing success,” Buffett wrote in the introduction of the book, “Poor Charlie’s Almanack.”

That unconventional way of thinking stems from one of Munger’s childhood idols, Ben Franklin, whose “Poor Richard’s Almanack” is the tome Munger’s book refers to. Munger was a fervent reader, especially of biographies, and after reading Franklin’s, he was inspired to grow, learn, and try new things, which even included raising hamsters — until his mother made him stop once his herd reached 35.

Much like Franklin, Munger was a quick learner and had many interests. He set off to study mathematics at the University of Michigan, but after his second year he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Because of his quick learning ability, he studied and trained to become a meteorologist, which is how he served during World War II.

After returning from the war, he enrolled in Harvard Law School and earned his law degree, despite not having completed his undergraduate degree. Although he never graduated from U-M, he still carries close ties to the school. In 2013, he donated $110 million in securities to the institution, the largest single donation in its 193-year history, according to Michigan News. Ten million of the $110 million was designated for fellowships for graduate students who would live in the Munger Graduate Residences, which was to be built with the remaining $100 million. The project was completed in 2015.

AlecTomGoresIllustration
Alec and Tom Gores

Page also attended U-M, and graduated in 1995 with a degree in computer programming. For him, however, attending Michigan was more than an educational experience. It was an opportunity to fulfill his grandfather’s dream for his family, which was explained when Page delivered the 2009 commencement speech. He called the opportunity to speak on such a platform “more special and more personal than you know.”

“My father was willing to give up literally everything he had (in Israel) and pack his bags and bring us here. … He did it for the kids, to make sure we (had) a better future.”
—Alec Gores

Alec and Tom Gores had a dream to fulfill, as well. In 1968, their father, Charlie Gores, moved his family to Flint from Israel in pursuit of a better future for his children. Alec was 15 and Tom was 4 at the time, and since then they’ve built successful careers while chasing the American Dream their father inspired in them.

“My father was willing to give up literally everything he had (in Israel) and pack his bags and bring us here,” Alec Gores told Forbes in 2016. “He did it for the kids, to make sure we (had) a better future.”“Everyone in my family went here, to Michigan. My mother, my brother, my dad, all of us. My dad actually got a quantity discount. He got all three and a half of his degrees here,” Page joked. “My father’s father worked in the Chevy Plant in Flint, Mich. He was an assembly line worker. He drove his two children here to Ann Arbor and told them, ‘This is where you’re going to college.’ ” And that’s exactly what they did.

Alec Gores started out by bagging groceries in his uncle’s store. As a young immigrant, he didn’t graduate high school until he was 20 years old, but he was determined to continue his education. Following his natural inclination for math and science, he studied computer science at Western Michigan University and became the first person in his family to graduate from college in 1977. Tom followed his brother’s footsteps, and in 1986 he graduated with a construction management degree from Michigan State University.

The brothers are now living out the dream their father had for them, earning spots on the Forbes Billionaire 2021 list. Tom Gores sits at No. 486, with a net worth of $5.9 billion and the private equity firm, Platinum Equity, which has $23 billion in assets; Alec Gores is No. 1,008, with a net worth of $2.8 billion thanks to his private equity firm, The Gores Group.

RichardDeVosIllustration
Richard DeVos

Remembering his heritage, Alec Gores served as a chairman for a special dinner during which the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Faculty of Law announced the Harvey L. Silbert Torch of Learning Award in 2015. The event raised more than $1 million for the University of Jerusalem.

Tom Gores owns the Detroit Pistons, which he purchased with Platinum Equity in 2011, and he has since bought out his firm; Gores now has 100 percent ownership of the team. He was responsible for the development of the new $90 million Detroit Pistons Performance Center in Detroit.

The Pistons’ NBA Eastern Conference rivals, the Orlando Magic, are owned by fellow Michigan billionaires: the DeVos family. Richard DeVos purchased the team in 1991 and, since then, his son Doug DeVos has taken over as chairman. The family had a combined net worth of $5.4 billion, putting them at No. 351 on the Forbes Billionaires in 2018, but the list hasn’t been updated since Richard’s passing later that year.

As a boy in west Michigan, Richard DeVos started out delivering newspapers. His grandfather sold produce door-to-door, which inspired the young entrepreneur to pursue a career in sales. Born in 1926, he experienced the worst of the Great Depression when his father lost his job as an electrician.

Like Munger, DeVos eventually enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, along with a schoolmate, Jay Van Andel. After their service, DeVos and Van Andel used their savings from their military pay to start a flight school called Wolverine Air Service. It was just the beginning of their entrepreneurial ventures together.

They were later introduced to the direct sales company Nutrilite, which offered dietary supplements. The pair became the company’s most successful distributors, and in 1959 they decided to start their own company, Amway — short for “American Way.” The company now generates more than $8 billion in annual revenue and is still headquartered in Ada, just east of Grand Rapids.

Richard DeVos and his wife, Helen, had four children: Daniel, Doug, Dick, and Suzanne. They all worked in their family business and later went on to create their own foundations. The most notable of these is the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, which focuses on education, community, the arts, justice, and leadership.

HomerStrykerIllustration
Dr. Homer Stryker

Since their foundation’s beginning in 1989, the couple has donated more than $180 million to various causes. They’ve also been heavily involved in conservative politics, as Betsy DeVos served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2017-2021. She graduated from Calvin College (now Calvin University) in Grand Rapids, while Dick and his brother, Dan, attended Northwood University in Midland, where they obtained business degrees.

“It’s a poor workman that blames his tools. If they don’t work, make them work. If you can’t make them work, make some that do work.”
—Dr. Homer Stryker

In 2016, the family was honored at the opening ceremony for the Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management at Northwood University, to which they had made a generous donation. It has since become one of the top-rated MBA programs in the country. Richard DeVos was able to attend the ceremony, along with his sons, Dick and Dan, before he passed away in 2018. In his lifetime, he and his family gave more than $1.2 billion to various charities and foundations.

Unlike Richard DeVos, neither Dr. Homer Stryker nor his son, L. Lee Stryker, lived long enough to see the opening of the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker, M.D. School of Medicine in 2014, which was made possible by a $100 million donation from their family and company.

Five years later, after more than 350 students had graduated from the medical school, the L. Lee Stryker Learning Hall was dedicated. Homer Stryker’s son preceded him in death in 1976, the result of a plane crash in Wyoming. The younger Stryker had been the general manager, and later the president, of his father’s company. Today, Homer’s daughter Ronda Stryker is the only child to continue to be actively involved as a director of Styker Medical Sales.

Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, live in Portage and have been busily involved in communities across the state through their dedication to the Western Michigan University Medical School and their wealth management firm, Greenleaf  Trust.

Johnston, who also graduated from Western Michigan University, currently serves as one of its trustees. Greenleaf Trust manages $16 billion in assets, and in July it was named to Fortune’s 2021 Best Workplaces for Millennials list. Ronda Stryker and her husband gave a combined $50 million to Harvard Medical School and Spelman College in 2016 and 2018, continuing in her father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. 

“(Lee Stryker’s) legacy is to care about all people and to give every person an equal opportunity to succeed,” Ronda Stryker’s daughter, Annie Johnston-Henn, said at the L. Lee Stryker Learning Hall dedication. “I think he’s probably one of the people who really instilled that idea of philanthropy and giving back — and not just your assets, but also your time. That was really important to him.”

Homer Stryker attended Western Michigan University and pursued a career in teaching in 1916. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and upon his return, he wanted to attend medical school at U-M. To his great disappointment, he was rejected. Unable to pass the foreign language test for admittance, he asked for help from an old classmate, Mary Jane Underwood.

She tutored him in French while he worked as a teacher, coach, barber, and even a semi-pro pitcher to save up enough money for his schooling. Finally he began his studies and, as a man of many talents, he even led the Wolverines to a Big 10 Title as the starting pitcher for their baseball team. He married Underwood in 1924 and graduated from medical school in 1925.

During his illustrious career as an orthopedic surgeon and inventor, Homer Stryker dedicated himself to creating active, healthier lives for his patients and easier, more efficient devices for nurses and doctors. His Walking Heel, made for rubber casts, was much lighter than the contemporary iron heel, and his Wedge Turning Frame made it easier for health care professionals to move immobile patients in a more comfortable way.

He later improved upon his Wedge Turning Frame with his Circ-O-Lectric bed in the 1950s; the device is still used in some hospitals. Today, his company ranks No. 212 on the Fortune 500 list and has more than 40,000 employees. In 2020, it generated $14 billion in revenue.

Western’s school of medicine features a quote by Homer Stryker on its website: “It’s a poor workman that blames his tools. If they don’t work, make them work. If you can’t make them work, make some that do work.”

Stryker, like the other billionaires in this story, found ways to forge through obstacles and make their dreams and ideas work. Neither the Great Depression nor poverty nor language barriers could stop them, and when things seemed good enough, they pushed the limits farther.

They never settled for ordinary, but instead challenged the status quo. They asked hard questions, made new connections, sparked fresh ideas, and innovated their way to the top of their industries.

Along the way, they never failed to give back to the educational institutions and communities that helped them, taught them, and inspired them to pursue more. The individuals featured here not only have built legacies and changed their families’ futures, but they’ve also given countless other young men and women statewide — and even nationwide — opportunities to shape their own futures through the financial impacts they’ve had on their alma maters.

Dale Buss contributed to this report.


The Club

Steve Ballmer Headshot

Steve Ballmer

• Former Microsoft CEO and owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers
• Net worth: $73.8 billion
• Born in Detroit and graduated from Detroit Country Day School, attended Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, graduated from Harvard University

 


Andrew Beal HeadshotAndrew Beal

• Owner of Texas bank Beal Financial Corp.
• Net worth: $7.9 billion
• Born in Lansing, originally made a living by repairing used TVs. Attended Michigan State University and Baylor University, but never graduated.

 


John Brown HeadshotJohn Brown

• Became CEO of Stryker Corp. in Kalamazoo in 1976. Ran Stryker Corp. for 32 years before retiring as chairman.
• Net worth of $3 billion
• Graduated from Auburn University

 


Kenneth B. Dart HeadshotKenneth B. Dart

• Businessman and Caymanian billionaire
• Net worth $6.6 billion. Became the president of the Dart Container Corp. in Mason, former “Michigan’s wealthiest person.”
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Bharat DesaiBharat Desai

• Co-founder, president, and CEO of Syntel
• Net worth of $1.5 billion
• Originally born in Kenya, then moved to India where he would grow up to be a programmer, before moving to the United States where he worked for Tata.
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Dick DeVos headshotDick Devos

• Served as the CEO for Amway in Ada. Son of Richard Devos. Ran for Michigan governor in 2006, and lost to Jennifer Granholm.
• Net worth of $5.4 billion
• Graduated from Northwood University

 


Stanley DruckenmillerStanley Druckenmiller

• Co-founded Duquesne Capital
• Net worth of $5.6 billion
• Lead portfolio manager at Quantum Fund
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Henry Engelhardt HeadshotHenry Engelhardt 

• Founder and CEO of Admiral Group, a British motor insurance company
• Net worth of $1.7 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Martha Ford headshotMartha Ford

• Widow of William C. Ford, grandson of Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford. paternal grandparents were the founders of Firestone Tire and Rubber Co.
• Net worth of $1.4 billion
• Graduated from Vassar College in New York.

 


Donald Foss headshotDonald Foss

• Founder and former chairman of Southfield-based Credit Acceptance Corp., which provides vehicle loans.
• Net worth of $1.9 billion
• Graduated from University of Minnesota, earned his MBA from Harvard University

 


Dan Gilbert HeadshotDan Gilbert

• Founder and chairman of Rocket Cos. in Detroit.
• Net worth of $31.3 billion
• Amassed $5,000 early in his college career selling pizzas. Started his company, Quicken Loans, in 1985.
• Graduated from Michigan State University

 


Alec GoresAlec Gores

• Founder of Private Equity firm The Gores Group
• Net worth of $2.2 billion
• Resides in Beverly Hills, Calif.
• Graduated from Western Michigan University

 


Tom Gores HeadshotTom Gores

• Owner of the Detroit Pistons
• Owns $13 billion in assets through his Beverly Hills, Calif-based private equity firm Platinum Equity, launched an economic development program in 2016 called FlintNow.
• Net worth of $5.7 billion
• Graduated from Michigan State University


Marian Illitch headshotMarian Ilitch

• Co-founder of Detroit-based Little Caesars Pizza in 1959, owns the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, and MotorCity Casino Hotel.
• She and her family are creating the sports and entertainment are The District Detroit around Little Caesars Arena.
• Net worth of $3.7 billion


Matt Ishbia headshotMat Ishbia

• CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage in Pontiac
• Former Michigan State University basketball player
• Net worth of $11 billion
• Graduated from Michigan State University

 


Brad Keywell headshotBrad Keywell 

• Co-founder and principal of Groupon
• Founder and of the AI industrial software provider, Uptake technologies
• Founding investor of Temple Inc.
• Co-founder and managing partner at Lightbank
• Net Worth of $2.7 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan


Bobby Kotick headshotBobby Kotick

• President and CEO of Activision Blizzard, a video game company.
• Noted games include “Call of Duty, “Candy Crush,” and “World of Warcraft.”
• A member of the S&P 500
• Studied art history at University of Michigan.

 


Martin LauMartin Lau

• President of Chinese multinational investment holding company Tencent Holdings Inc.
• Became a billionaire for the first time in 2017 after Tencent shares jumped by a third over the previous year.
• Net worth of $4.5 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Jeff Lawson headshotJeff Lawson

• Co-founders of Twilio
• Owns 5 percent of the $45 billion entity
• Lawson launched his first Internet startup while he was at the University of Michigan and went on to become the first CTO of ticket reseller StubHub.
• Net worth of $2.9 billion

 


Eric Paul Lefkosky headshotEric Paul Lefkofsky 

• Co-founder of Groupon
• Net worth of $4.2 billion
• Founder of Tempus and co-founder of Echo Global Logistics (ECHO), InnerWorkings (INWK), and Mediaocean.
• An early investor in Uptake, and the managing director of Chicago-based venture capital firm Lightbank.
• Graduated from University of Michigan


Matthew Moroun headshotMatthew Moroun

• Owns Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge between the U.S. and Canada.
• CEO of Crown Enterprises holding company in Warren.
• Net worth of $1.5 billion

 


Doug MeijerDoug Meijer and Hank Meijer

• Each have a net worth of $4.2 billion
• Sons of Frederik G. H. Meijer
Brothers took over Meijer Inc.  in 1990 and ran the company until 2017.
• They continue as Meijer’s board members
• Both graduated from University of Michigan

 

Hank Meijer

 

 

 

 

 


Tom S. MonaghanTom S. Monaghan 

• Founder of Domino’s Pizza Inc. in  Ann Arbor
• Former owner of the Detroit Tigers
• Sold Domino’s for a reported $1 billion
• Gave $500 million to charity
• Current estimated net worth a reported $500 million

 


Charlie MungerCharlie Munger

• Vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway; studied math at University of Michigan.
• Donated in excess of $25 million to renovation projects at U-M, gave $110 million for graduate housing and graduate fellowships.
• Net worth of $2.3 billion

 


Larry PageLarry Page

• CEO of Google parent Alphabet Inc.
• Net worth: $102.8 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 

 


Roger PenskeRoger S. Penske

• Owner of Penske Automotive, Penske Corp., Penske Truck Leasing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (most businesses based in Bloomfield Township).
• Net worth of $2.4 billion
• Graduated from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania

 


Jorge M. PerezJorge M. Perez 

• Chairman and CEO of The Related Group, a real estate developer in Argentina.
• Net worth of $1.7 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Stephen M RossStephen M. Ross

• Chairman and majority owner of The Related Cos. in New York City.
• Principal owner of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium.
• Namesake of U-M’s Ross School of Business.
• Net worth of $7 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan


Jon StrykerJon Stryker

• President and founder of the Arcus Foundation, which serves to support LGBTQ+ community rights and the conservation of great apes.
• Grandfather founded Stryker Corp. in Kalamazoo.
• Stryker inherited a stake in the company but does not work there.
• Net worth of $4.3 billion
• Graduated from Kalamazoo College


Pat StrykerPat Stryker

• Founded the Bohemian Foundation, which supports communities through music, the arts, and civic programs.
• Co-funded ($10 million) the first memorial to the victims of racial terror lynchings.
• Resides in Fort Collins, Colo.
• Net worth of $3.1 billion
• Graduated from University of Northern Colorado


Ronda StrykerRonda Stryker

• Director of Stryker Corp. in Kalamazoo
• Net worth of $5.8 billion
• Earned a master’s degree from Western Michigan University

 


Bruce WassersteinBruce Wasserstein 

• Mergers and acquisitions specialist
• Net worth of $2.9 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 

 


Sam WylySam Wyly

• Owner of the Bonanza Restaurants chain
• Had more than $1 billion in 2010.
• Convicted of tax evasion and filed for bankruptcy
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


William YoungWilliam Young

• CEO of Plastipak Packaging Inc. in Plymouth Township
• Net worth of $6.8 Billion
• Graduated from University of Detroit Mercy

 

 


Samuel ZellSamuel Zell

• Founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments.
• Former chairman of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.
• Has an interest in, and is chairman of several companies in the New York Stock Exchange: (EQR), Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), Equity Commonwealth (EQC), and Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA), and Anixter.
• Net worth of $7.4 billion, graduated from University of Michigan


Niklas ZennstromNiklas Zennström

• Swedish entrepreneur known for founding several high-profile online ventures with Janus Friis, including Skype and Kazaa. Sold his share in Skype to eBay.
• Founded Atomico, a technology investment firm; has become a significant leader for entrepreneurs in the tech sector. He’s also co-founder of Zennström Philanthropies, a charity organization.
• Net worth of $1.4 billion, graduated from University of Michigan


Deceased


J. Robert BeysterJ. Robert Beyster

• Chairman, president, and CEO of Science Applications International
• Retired in 2004.
• Died in 2014
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Eli BroadEli Broad

• Co-founder of homebuilder Kaufman & Broad
• Bought Sun Life insurance, then developed it into annuities giant SunAmerica before selling it to AIG Life Holdings Inc.
• Net worth of $6.9 billion
• Died January of 2021
• Graduated from Michigan State University


William DavidsonWilliam Davidson

President and chairman of Guardian Industries Inc. in Auburn Hills.
• Former owner of the Detroit Pistons and co-owner of the Palace of Auburn Hills.
• Founder of the William Davidson Institute at the U-M Ross School of Business.
• Net worth $3.5 billion
• Died March of 2009
• Attended University of Michigan, graduated from Wayne State University


Richard DeVosRichard Devos

• Co-founder of Amway in Ada.
• Former owner of Orlando Magic Basketball team.
• Net worth $5.1 billion
• Died September of 2018
• Graduated from Calvin University

 


Mike IllitchMike Ilitch

• Co-founder of Little Caesars Pizza in 1959.
• Owned the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, and MotorCity Casino Hotel.
• Net worth of $3.7 billion
• Graduated from Fordson High School
• Died February of 2017

 


Manual MorounManual Moroun 

• Owned Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge between the U.S. and Canada
• Was CEO of Crown Enterprises holding company
• Net worth of $1.5 billion
• Died July of 2020
• Attended U-D Jesuit High School
• Graduated from University of Notre Dame


Dr. Homer StrykerDr. Homer Stryker

• Founder of medical device company Stryker Corp. in Kalamazoo
• Net worth of $4.2 billion
• Graduated from University of Michigan
• Died May of 1980

 


A. Alfred TaubmanA. Alfred Taubman

• Founder of the Taubman Centers Inc.; owned Michigan Panthers of the former USFL.
• Lifetime donations to the University of Michigan total more than $141 million.
• Net worth of $3.1 billion
• The former shoe salesman started building retail centers in 1950, and went on to become a dominant force in the luxury mall sector.
• Graduated from University of Michigan, died in April of 2015


Preston Robert (Bob) TischPreston Robert (Bob) Tisch

• Chairman of Loews Corp.
• U.S. Postmaster General (1986–88)
• Former 50 percent owner of the NFL New York Giants
• Died in November of 2005
• Graduated from University of Michigan

 


Ralph C. Wilson Jr.Ralph C. Wilson Jr.

• Owner of the Ralph C. Wilson Agency (now in Southfield).
• Founder and owner of the Buffalo Bills; namesake of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation.
• Net worth $1.2 billion (est.)
• Died March of 2014