Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty by Daniel Schulman Page A
Authors: Daniel Schulman
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sum” of money and he imparted his wisdom regarding their inheritance:
It may be either a blessing or a curse. You can use it as a valuable tool for accomplishment or you can squander it foolishly.
If you choose to let this money destroy your initiative and independence then it will be a curse to you and my action in giving it to you will have been a mistake. I should regret very much to have you miss the glorious feeling of accomplishment and I know you are not going to let me down.
Remember that often adversity is a blessing in disguise and is certainly the greatest character builder. Be kind and generous to one another and be good to your mother.
Despite his words about being “kind and generous to one another,” the terms of the businessman’s will planted the seeds of resentment. Almost a year to the day before he died, Fred hadscrawled his signature on an updated version that excluded Frederick from the same inheritance as his three younger brothers. Fred didn’t leave his eldest son a pauper; he had created two trust funds for him, one in 1961 and the other in 1966. But Fred was determined that he receive nothing more.
Their father removed Frederick from his will, according to Charles, because he had repeatedly stolen from him in the years before his death “and then lied about it when confronted with the evidence.” Frederick lifted traveler’s checks, cash, and an “air travel card” from their dad, Charles said; in one case, he alleged, his older brother forged his signature on their father’s Brooks Brothers charge account.
According to Charles, on the first occasion Fred caught his son stealing, he forgave Frederick. Indeed, Fred included Frederick in a previous version of his will, drafted in June 1966. But later that year, after Fred had created trusts for each of his sons, the industrialist discovered that Frederick had again stolen from him. “The fact that… he in the face of that would steal from him again was the final straw,” Charles said. (“I refute all of Charles’ allegations as a calculated campaign of vilification,” Frederick said. “He who would cast aspersions should be beyond reproach.”)
Frederick learned of his disinheritance when he returned home for Fred’s funeral. His grief-stricken mother—unaware of Frederick’s removal until she read her husband’s will—broke the news to him in the library of the family’s home. Frederick recalled that she asked him not to contest the will and “said that she would never favor one son over the other when it came time for her to write her will and that all her sons would be treated equally.” Deeply embittered, he pressured his mother in the years ahead to make things right. “I have never forgotten your saying, shortly after father died, that you intended to leave me a share in your estate equal to that of my brothers,” he wrote Mary in May 1972. “You asked me at that time not to contest father’s will.” He’d obliged, believinghis mother “would set things straight eventually.” But this had yet to happen. Frederick asked Mary to create a second trust to put him on a more even footing with his younger brothers. Doing so, he said, would “no longer perpetuate an imbalance that reflected father’s unequal affection for his children.”
Mary resisted Frederick’s efforts to extract more money from the family, replying by letter that his father had left him an “adequate” trust. Though he was left out of Fred’s will, Frederick still owned a little more than 14 percent of the stock in his father’s company and 16 percent of the shares in a charitable foundation Fred had established in 1953. Charles, David, and Bill each inherited 20-plus percent stakes in the company (the rest was owned by other family members, including the descendants of L. B. Simmons) and nearly 23 percent apiece of the foundation. Fred left to his wife their property and all of his possessions, including their art
It may be either a blessing or a curse. You can use it as a valuable tool for accomplishment or you can squander it foolishly.
If you choose to let this money destroy your initiative and independence then it will be a curse to you and my action in giving it to you will have been a mistake. I should regret very much to have you miss the glorious feeling of accomplishment and I know you are not going to let me down.
Remember that often adversity is a blessing in disguise and is certainly the greatest character builder. Be kind and generous to one another and be good to your mother.
Despite his words about being “kind and generous to one another,” the terms of the businessman’s will planted the seeds of resentment. Almost a year to the day before he died, Fred hadscrawled his signature on an updated version that excluded Frederick from the same inheritance as his three younger brothers. Fred didn’t leave his eldest son a pauper; he had created two trust funds for him, one in 1961 and the other in 1966. But Fred was determined that he receive nothing more.
Their father removed Frederick from his will, according to Charles, because he had repeatedly stolen from him in the years before his death “and then lied about it when confronted with the evidence.” Frederick lifted traveler’s checks, cash, and an “air travel card” from their dad, Charles said; in one case, he alleged, his older brother forged his signature on their father’s Brooks Brothers charge account.
According to Charles, on the first occasion Fred caught his son stealing, he forgave Frederick. Indeed, Fred included Frederick in a previous version of his will, drafted in June 1966. But later that year, after Fred had created trusts for each of his sons, the industrialist discovered that Frederick had again stolen from him. “The fact that… he in the face of that would steal from him again was the final straw,” Charles said. (“I refute all of Charles’ allegations as a calculated campaign of vilification,” Frederick said. “He who would cast aspersions should be beyond reproach.”)
Frederick learned of his disinheritance when he returned home for Fred’s funeral. His grief-stricken mother—unaware of Frederick’s removal until she read her husband’s will—broke the news to him in the library of the family’s home. Frederick recalled that she asked him not to contest the will and “said that she would never favor one son over the other when it came time for her to write her will and that all her sons would be treated equally.” Deeply embittered, he pressured his mother in the years ahead to make things right. “I have never forgotten your saying, shortly after father died, that you intended to leave me a share in your estate equal to that of my brothers,” he wrote Mary in May 1972. “You asked me at that time not to contest father’s will.” He’d obliged, believinghis mother “would set things straight eventually.” But this had yet to happen. Frederick asked Mary to create a second trust to put him on a more even footing with his younger brothers. Doing so, he said, would “no longer perpetuate an imbalance that reflected father’s unequal affection for his children.”
Mary resisted Frederick’s efforts to extract more money from the family, replying by letter that his father had left him an “adequate” trust. Though he was left out of Fred’s will, Frederick still owned a little more than 14 percent of the stock in his father’s company and 16 percent of the shares in a charitable foundation Fred had established in 1953. Charles, David, and Bill each inherited 20-plus percent stakes in the company (the rest was owned by other family members, including the descendants of L. B. Simmons) and nearly 23 percent apiece of the foundation. Fred left to his wife their property and all of his possessions, including their art
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