Lone Star Wealth
Richest families in Texas: Forbes list has a few billionaire surprises
- Margot and Ross Perot at the Journey Around the Sun Gala at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.Photo by Jason Janik
- Nancy Dedman with Brian Bolke (left) and Brad Kelly (right) at a Forty Five Ten party.Photo by Jerry McClure
- Albert and Anne Chao.Photo by © Jenny Antill
- Thomas Hoyt Friedkin, founder of Gulf States Toyota.Forbes.com
- Jan Duncan and the late Dan Duncan.Photo by Fulton Davenport: PWL Studio
- San Antonio's Charles Butt of H-E-B at the 2013 H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards.Photo courtesy of Business Wire
- Cynthia and George Mitchell at opening of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands in 1990.www.Science.TAMU.edu
- Annette and the late Harold Simmons.Photo by Kristina Bowman
The latest Forbes list of America's Richest Families has a Texas flavor. Twenty-one Lone Star families were named among the 185 wealthiest clans in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth area topped the statewide list, with nine families. Houston had seven; San Antonio had two; and Uvalde, Tyler and Midland each had one.
The list, which was released July 9, includes multigenerational families of all sizes, ranging from just two brothers to the 3,500 members of the Du Pont clan. Families needed at least a combined net worth of $1 billion to make the cut.
The source of Texas wealth was predictable — oil, energy, chemicals — and sometimes surprising; the owners or founders of Academy Sports & Outdoors, Whataburger, H-E-B and Mary Kay Cosmetics were named to the elite list.
The four heirs of Houston oilman Dan Duncan ranked No. 10 on the overall list and tops in Texas, with an estimated net worth of $25.4 billion. The 34 members of the Hunt family in Dallas ranked No. 13 overall, with an estimated net worth of $15 billion.
Others on the list from Dallas-Fort Worth, with rank, estimated net worth and source of income:
- Marshall family (No. 26, $9.3 billion, diversified)
- Bass family (No. 27, $9.1 billion, investments)
- Perot family (No. 48, $5.6 billion, diversified)
- Simmons family (No. 52, $5.2 billion, inherited)
- Rogers family (No. 115, $2 billion, Mary Kay Cosmetics)
- Westerman family (No. 147, $1.4 billion, oil)
- Colburn family (No. 156, $1.3 billion, electric equipment distributor)
- Dedman family (No. 164, $1.2 billion, country clubs)
The Houston families:
- Chao family (No. 62, $4.3 billion, chemicals)
- Friedkin family (No. 75, $3.3 billion, Toyota distributor)
- Gochman family (No. 100, $2.3 billion, Academy Sports & Outdoors)
- Mitchell family (No. 100, $2.3 billion, oil)
- Walter family (No. 121, $1.9 billion, energy)
- Adams family (No. 156, $1.3 billion, self-made). Bud Adams, who moved the Houston Oilers to Nashville in 1997, remained in Houston until his death last year, although Forbes says the family business in based in the Tennessee city.
In San Antonio, the Butt family, owners of H-E-B, have an estimated net worth of $10.1 billion and ranked No. 23, while the Dobson family, owner of Whataburger, ranked No. 142 with $1.5 billion.
