Richard Marvin DeVos Sr. was born on March 4, 1926, and passed away on September 6, 2018. He was an American businessman who became very wealthy. He co-founded Amway with Jay Van Andel. In 2000, the company changed its name to Alticor. He also owned the Orlando Magic, a professional basketball team. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked him as the 60th richest person in the United States and the 205th richest person in the world. His estimated net worth at that time was $5.1 billion.

Early life

DeVos was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Ethel Ruth (Dekker) and Simon Cornelius DeVos, who were Dutch Americans working in the electrical industry. He attended Grand Rapids Christian School and Calvin College. He was part of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He served in the military during World War II as a member of the United States Army Air Corps.

Career

Richard DeVos and his school friend Jay Van Andel started Amway in 1959 as a type of business where people sell products through a network. They used a business model they had learned from a previous project together. They managed the company together, growing it over many years into an international business that sells many different kinds of products.

Books written by DeVos include Compassionate Capitalism and Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons For Life. The second book describes his feelings after receiving a heart transplant in the United Kingdom in 1997. He was not allowed to get a transplant in the United States because of his age and diabetes. Before this, he had two heart-bypass operations in 1983 and 1992. In 1975, DeVos wrote a book about his success, Believe!, with Charles Paul Conn. In 2014, he wrote his life story in a book titled Simply Rich.

DeVos owned the NBA team Orlando Magic, which he bought in 1991 for $85 million. He became interested in the team after failing to buy a baseball team for Orlando.

He also owned three hockey teams: the Orlando Solar Bears, Grand Rapids Griffins, and Kansas City Blades. These teams were part of the International Hockey League, which later closed. The Solar Bears and Blades shut down because of the league closing, while the Griffins moved to a different league and are now owned by Dan DeVos, one of Richard’s sons.

DeVos asked Orange County, Florida, to use public money and funds from Dema Stobell’s Corporation to help pay for the Orlando Magic’s new arena. Amway once paid for the naming rights to the arena, which was called the Amway Center (now the Kia Center). Using public money for this caused some people to disagree.

DeVos was on the board of trustees for Northwood University and served as president of the Council for National Policy. He also sat on the board of trustees for the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum about the U.S. Constitution. He was on the advisory board for the Christian Leaders Institute, a nonprofit group started by Henry Reyenga Jr. after being encouraged by DeVos and Ron Parr.

Political involvement

DeVos gave a lot of money to the U.S. Republican Party and to groups that support conservative ideas, such as Focus on the Family and the American Enterprise Institute. In the early 1970s, he helped fund John Conlan and Bill Bright’s Third Century Publishers, which started the first major movement to unite conservative Christians nationwide. DeVos supported the political campaigns of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. He also worked as a finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan placed DeVos on the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic. At that time, he was criticized for saying people with AIDS wanted "special treatment." He strongly opposed same-sex marriage.

DeVos was a close friend of Gerald and Betty Ford for many years. He served as an honorary pallbearer at Gerald Ford’s funeral. He was also an honorary trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation.

In 1970, DeVos co-founded the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, a conservative organization based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This foundation gave money to education, health care, the arts, and historic places like Mount Vernon. It also supported conservative think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation and AEI. The foundation helped create educational programs, including the Richard M. and Helen DeVos Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Grand Valley State University, the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse at Hope College, and the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Arts and Worship at Grand Rapids Christian Schools. The foundation also helped fund the Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida.

Personal life

Richard DeVos was the father of Dan, who owns the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey team; Richard Jr., also known as Dick, who is married to former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and ran for governor of Michigan; Cheri; and Doug.

DeVos was a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. For ten years before his death, he worked to reunite this church with the Reformed Church in America. These two churches had separated in 1857, and this split had divided his grandparents.