picasso
1/30/2007, 11:23 PM
pretty cool:
World's richest bachelor left big legacy
By GENE CURTIS World Staff Writer
1/25/2007
Lew Wentz, one of America's richest men, also had a secret identity as Daddy Long Legs, a year-around Santa who bought gifts and shoes for needy Ponca City children. But few knew it until he died.
It was a role he started long before he had enough money to finance such generosity; when he had to borrow money to meet the needs of those children. But he saw the need and wanted to help.
Among his generosities was to finance treatment for a crippled boy, an act that led Wentz to become one of the founders of and the largest contributor to the Oklahoma Society for Crippled Children, an agency that helped thousands.
His generosity wasn't confined to children or to Ponca City residents. He gave millions to a myriad of charities.
Wentz had a fortune estimated at more than $25 million -- a tremendous sum in those days -- when he died of coronary thrombosis on June 10, 1949. And even after his death, his fortune grew because of oil discoveries on land he had bought or leased. Only a few years earlier he had been identified as one of seven Americans with annual incomes exceeding $5 million.
He was 68, although his age had always been a closely guarded secret.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2007/070125_A11_World64573_a11wentz25.jpg
Lew Wentz, known as the world's richest bachelor, left a legacy of philanthropy that has helped thousands.
Tulsa World file
.....
Sometimes called the world's richest bachelor, Wentz once said he regretted that he had never married. "Every girl should marry by the time she's 25," he said. "And every man by 30 if he's financially able."
Thousands of Oklahomans owe their educations to Wentz, who was too poor as a boy to go to college but who set up loan programs for students after he became fabulously wealthy.
Hundreds of others were able to start businesses because of loans from Wentz.
Wentz got into the oil business by chance -- and on a shoestring. Sometimes he was too broke to pay his room and board bill.
Louis Haines Wentz was one of seven children of a Pittsburgh blacksmith and toolmaker. When he graduated from high school, college was out of the question. He played on and managed semi-pro baseball teams and became the coach of all the high school teams in Pittsburgh.
His job as coach left Wentz time for Republican ward work, and by chance he called on John McCaskey, who had made a fortune selling bulk sauerkraut and who had invested in E. W. Marland's wildcat oil venture on the 101 Ranch near Ponca City but couldn't go to Oklahoma because of his kraut business.
McCaskey hired Wentz to go to Ponca as his personal representative, and the two became partners with Marland. Wentz soon split off from Marland and began cornering leases in the Peckham-Braman region. At one time, Wentz turned down a $400,000 offer for his leases although he had only $39 in his pocket.
Wentz had made his first million dollars by the time of World War I and by 1927 the Wentz Oil Corp. was making a million dollars a month. McCaskey had died and Wentz had bought McCaskey's interest from his heirs. Wentz sold out before the stock market crash of 1929 and invested in government bonds.
He later invested in auto agencies, a string of newspapers, agriculture and many other businesses, even a mortuary. But he retained an interest in the oil business and his fortune continued to grow.
When Wentz arrived in Oklahoma in 1911, he rented a room at the Arcade Hotel, a rooming house a block from the Santa Fe Railroad depot where owner Annie Rhodes treated him like a mother. When he couldn't pay his room and board bill, she told him to "pay me when you can."
Wentz never forgot her generosity and paid her with high interest after his wells came in. Many others who stayed there under the same arrangement didn't remember their debts.
Wentz once built a mansion outside of Ponca City but returned to the rooming house to be close to his friends and lived there the rest of his life.
Although Wentz was probably the biggest guiding influence of the Republican Party in Oklahoma, he resisted efforts of party leaders who wanted him to run for governor in 1934 and for U.S. senator in 1944. His only experience in public office was a few years as chairman of the state Highway Commission.
Gov. Leon C. Phillips appointed Wentz to the Will Rogers Commission and he was reappointed by Govs. Robert S. Kerr and Roy J. Turner. He was among a handful of prominent citizens who had furnished the funds to build the garden and crypt at the memorial in Claremore where the bodies of Rogers, his wife and infant son are buried.
Among Wentz's philanthropies was a loan program for students at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University that had helped more than 2,000 students before his death and is still functioning.
He also lent money freely to young people who wanted to start businesses. A number of his businesses at his death were those he took back after his proteges failed.
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World's richest bachelor left big legacy
By GENE CURTIS World Staff Writer
1/25/2007
Lew Wentz, one of America's richest men, also had a secret identity as Daddy Long Legs, a year-around Santa who bought gifts and shoes for needy Ponca City children. But few knew it until he died.
It was a role he started long before he had enough money to finance such generosity; when he had to borrow money to meet the needs of those children. But he saw the need and wanted to help.
Among his generosities was to finance treatment for a crippled boy, an act that led Wentz to become one of the founders of and the largest contributor to the Oklahoma Society for Crippled Children, an agency that helped thousands.
His generosity wasn't confined to children or to Ponca City residents. He gave millions to a myriad of charities.
Wentz had a fortune estimated at more than $25 million -- a tremendous sum in those days -- when he died of coronary thrombosis on June 10, 1949. And even after his death, his fortune grew because of oil discoveries on land he had bought or leased. Only a few years earlier he had been identified as one of seven Americans with annual incomes exceeding $5 million.
He was 68, although his age had always been a closely guarded secret.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/images/2007/070125_A11_World64573_a11wentz25.jpg
Lew Wentz, known as the world's richest bachelor, left a legacy of philanthropy that has helped thousands.
Tulsa World file
.....
Sometimes called the world's richest bachelor, Wentz once said he regretted that he had never married. "Every girl should marry by the time she's 25," he said. "And every man by 30 if he's financially able."
Thousands of Oklahomans owe their educations to Wentz, who was too poor as a boy to go to college but who set up loan programs for students after he became fabulously wealthy.
Hundreds of others were able to start businesses because of loans from Wentz.
Wentz got into the oil business by chance -- and on a shoestring. Sometimes he was too broke to pay his room and board bill.
Louis Haines Wentz was one of seven children of a Pittsburgh blacksmith and toolmaker. When he graduated from high school, college was out of the question. He played on and managed semi-pro baseball teams and became the coach of all the high school teams in Pittsburgh.
His job as coach left Wentz time for Republican ward work, and by chance he called on John McCaskey, who had made a fortune selling bulk sauerkraut and who had invested in E. W. Marland's wildcat oil venture on the 101 Ranch near Ponca City but couldn't go to Oklahoma because of his kraut business.
McCaskey hired Wentz to go to Ponca as his personal representative, and the two became partners with Marland. Wentz soon split off from Marland and began cornering leases in the Peckham-Braman region. At one time, Wentz turned down a $400,000 offer for his leases although he had only $39 in his pocket.
Wentz had made his first million dollars by the time of World War I and by 1927 the Wentz Oil Corp. was making a million dollars a month. McCaskey had died and Wentz had bought McCaskey's interest from his heirs. Wentz sold out before the stock market crash of 1929 and invested in government bonds.
He later invested in auto agencies, a string of newspapers, agriculture and many other businesses, even a mortuary. But he retained an interest in the oil business and his fortune continued to grow.
When Wentz arrived in Oklahoma in 1911, he rented a room at the Arcade Hotel, a rooming house a block from the Santa Fe Railroad depot where owner Annie Rhodes treated him like a mother. When he couldn't pay his room and board bill, she told him to "pay me when you can."
Wentz never forgot her generosity and paid her with high interest after his wells came in. Many others who stayed there under the same arrangement didn't remember their debts.
Wentz once built a mansion outside of Ponca City but returned to the rooming house to be close to his friends and lived there the rest of his life.
Although Wentz was probably the biggest guiding influence of the Republican Party in Oklahoma, he resisted efforts of party leaders who wanted him to run for governor in 1934 and for U.S. senator in 1944. His only experience in public office was a few years as chairman of the state Highway Commission.
Gov. Leon C. Phillips appointed Wentz to the Will Rogers Commission and he was reappointed by Govs. Robert S. Kerr and Roy J. Turner. He was among a handful of prominent citizens who had furnished the funds to build the garden and crypt at the memorial in Claremore where the bodies of Rogers, his wife and infant son are buried.
Among Wentz's philanthropies was a loan program for students at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University that had helped more than 2,000 students before his death and is still functioning.
He also lent money freely to young people who wanted to start businesses. A number of his businesses at his death were those he took back after his proteges failed.
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