Perelman, 47, a Wharton business school alumnus who borrowed money to build an empire that ranges from the Revlon cosmetics company to Coleman camping products to savings and loans. Third is debt-financed takeover specialist Ronald O. 2 spot was Warren Buffett, 60, the Omaha investor who bought his first stock at age 11 and parlayed his stock-picking savvy into a $3.3-billion fortune.

William Barron Hilton was dropped because part of his 1989 total of $1.25-billion actually belongs to a foundation. In addition, Alfred Dreyfus Goldman, Oklahoma City, with a 1989 real estate fortune estimated at $400-million, was removed from the list because of an inheritance dispute with his brother. The fortunes of 35 fell too far to be included. Six died, including the magazine's own namesake Malcolm Forbes. The total figure is actually up $3.5-billion over last year's total, but the magazine said that is due to its discovery of previously hidden sources of wealth among some members of the list.įorty-three names were added to the list this year, meaning 43 old names came off. The estimated worth of the Forbes 400 totals $272.5-billion _ nearly the size of the estimated fiscal 1990 federal budget deficit. That's not to say the wealthiest are hurting unbearably. It said the declines 'reflected a general scaling down of capital values, brought about in good part by a worldwide shrinkage of credit and sinking stock markets.' 'This year all kinds of things went down: real estate, media, banks, public stocks, private companies, you name it,' Forbes said.

'This year the entire Forbes 400 list seemed to stop going up and, on balance, start going down.' 'It's not just the year Donald Trump's and some other overleveraged fortunes hit the wall,' the magazine said. Trump, who previously has denounced Forbes for downgrading his ranking on the list, did not return a telephone call for comment. Forbes said Trump's fortune, estimated at $1.7-billion in 1989, was possibly within 'hailing distance of zero' because of looming loans and a slow economy. Some names such as Trump's were evicted, another symbolic boot to the 1980s era of living on borrowed money. His son, Alfred Victor du Pont, would become a founding father of Phi Kappa Sigma in 1850.The rags-to-riches Kluge expanded his fortune by $400-million to a staggering $5.6-billion, enough to retain his crown as the richest of America's rich.įor the first time since Forbes began publishing the list in 1982, the minimum net worth required to join the elite ranking dropped, from $275-million in 1989 to $260-million this year. It was a difficult role for him, and after leading the company through a recovery from a disastrous mill explosion in 1847, he retired in poor health in 1850.Īlfred du Pont died October 4, 1856, at Eleutherian Mills, near Greenville, Delaware, and is buried in the du Pont de Nemours Cemetery near Greenville. However, after spending nearly 20 years as a 'powderman,' and after a reorganization of the partnership by Jacques Antoine Bidermann, he became head of the company in 1837. He worked closely with the men in the mills and was particularly interested in researching new gunpowder chemical developments. In 1818, du Pont returned home to help his father rebuild the gunpowder company after a disastrous explosion that killed 33 people and injured his mother. Du Pont married American Margaretta Elizabeth 'Molly' La Motte (or Lammot) in 1824 they had seven children.

He later became Cooper's assistant at the University of Pennsylvania. While there he was president of Belles Lettres Literary Society and became a friend of one of his professors, Thomas Cooper. Later he attended Mount Airy College, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and then studied chemistry at Dickinson College. He came to the United States in 1800 as an infant and grew up around the gunpowder mills founded by his father on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware. Du Pont was born in Paris, son of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont and Sophie Madeleine Dalmas du Pont.

Alfred dupont net worth