Richest-in-U.S. List Includes Six in County
Six San Diego-area residents showed up on Forbes magazine’s list of the nation’s 400 wealthiest individuals released Monday.
John T. Walton, 44, the wealthiest among San Diegans listed with a net worth of $1.8 billion, was added to the Forbes list this year. He is the son of Wal-Mart Stores chairman Sam Walton, who this year divided his immense fortune into five shares of $1.8 billion each, keeping one share and giving the other four to his children.
Walton and his siblings tied for 20th place in the ranks of the country’s richest.
Joan Kroc, with a fortune of $950 million, was next among locals and 69th on the list overall. The 61-year-old Rancho Santa Fe resident inherited McDonald’s Corp. stock after the 1984 death of her husband, Ray, who built McDonald’s hamburgers into the nation’s largest fast-food chain.
Next was Helen K. Copley, 66, who controls La Jolla-based Copley Newspapers, publisher of the San Diego Union and Tribune. Copley’s fortune of $865 million ranks her 75th on the U.S. list overall. Her company owns 13 daily newspapers and 33 weeklies.
Margaret Cargill, who with her brother is said to own 25% of one of the world’s largest grain-trading firms, was the next San Diego-area resident on the list with an estimated fortune of $700 million. Her company, Cargill Inc., is one of the nation’s largest closely held companies.
Robert S. Howard, 65, placed 120th on the Forbes list with $600 million in net worth. The Rancho Santa Fe resident founded Howard Publications in 1961 and built it into a chain of 19 dailies, the largest of which is the Hammond (Ind.) Times. Howard also has substantial cable TV holdings.
Hotel del Coronado owner M. Larry Lawrence placed 148th on the list overall with a fortune estimated at $500 million. Lawrence, 63, also has extensive real estate holdings.
