| Richard DeVos | |
|---|---|
Richard DeVos (center) and Jay Van Andel meeting with President Gerald R. Ford
in June 1975 |
|
| Born | Richard Marvin DeVos March 4, 1926 Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |
| Known for | Amway founder, owner of NBA’s Orlando Magic |
| Net worth |  US$5.1 billion (January 2017)[1] |
| Spouse(s) | Helen June (Van Wesep) DeVos |
| Children | Dick DeVos Dan DeVos Cheri DeVos-Vanderweide Doug DeVos |
Richard Marvin DeVos Sr. (born March 4, 1926) is an American businessman, co-founder of Amway along with Jay Van Andel (company restructured as Alticor in 2000), and owner of the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team. In 2012, Forbes magazine listed him as the 60th wealthiest person in the United States, and the 205th richest in the world, with an estimated net worth of $5.1 billion. At one point, he was one of the 10 wealthiest Americans.
Early life
DeVos was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Ethel Ruth (Dekker) and Simon Cornelius DeVos, who worked in the electrical business. He was educated at Calvin College and is a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. He served in the military in World War II in the United States Army Air Corps.
Books
Books written by him include Compassionate Capitalism and Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons For Life. The latter reflects his feelings after successfully undergoing a heart transplant operation in 1997. This was preceded by two heart-bypass operations in 1983 and 1992. In 1975, DeVos published a book about his success, co-authored with Charles Paul Conn, titled Believe!.
Sports ownership
DeVos is the owner of the NBA team Orlando Magic, having bought the team in 1991. DeVos bought the Magic for $85 million. He became interested in the team after an unsuccessful effort to acquire a Major League Baseball expansion franchise for Orlando. DeVos also formerly owned the Orlando Solar Bears, Grand Rapids Griffins, and the Kansas City Blades, three International Hockey League franchises before that league folded; the Solar Bears and Blades were closed as a result of the league folding, while the Griffins moved to the American Hockey League, and are now under the ownership of Dan DeVos, one of Richard’s sons. In 2011, it was announced that DeVos planned to revive the Solar Bears as an expansion franchise for the ECHL. The new franchise took the ice in October 2012.
DeVos asked Orange County, Florida, to help pay for the Orlando Magic’s new arena using county funds and Dema Stobell’s Corporation money. Amway pays for the naming rights to Amway Center. The use of public money was controversial.
Richard DeVos Net Worth: Richard DeVos was an American business who had a net worth of $6 billion at the time of his death in 2018. Richard DeVos was born in 1926 in Grand Rapids, Michigan,. He earned a college degree from Calvin College in his hometown. After college DeVos joined the Army and served during World War II. When his service was over, DeVos returned home where he started several businesses with childhood frined Jay Van Andel. Jay and Richard started a hamburger stand, a sailing business and even an air charter service. In 1949, they signed up to be distributors of a nutritional supplement company called Nutrilite. In 1959, Devos and Van Andel founded their own multi-level-marketing firm, Amway (American Way Association). Their first product was an organic house cleaner. They bought the rights to the product and distributed through their sales channels. Over the next 50 years, Amway expanded to unfathomable heights. By 2017, the still-privately-owned Amway generated $8.6 billion in annual revenue. It is one of the 30 largest privately-owned companies in the world.
Source: