(Continued from Part 1 here). David and William Koch during the 1970’s
also joined Koch Industries (William was later fired) and Frederick is the only
one who never got into the family business. Frederick in recent years reportedly spends $20 million on
his art collection and castles while living in Monte Carlo and London. David
also went to work for Arthur Little after graduation and then worked at Amicon
Corporation and Scientific Design Company. David joined Koch Industries in 1970
and founded the New York office. By 1979 he was managing Koch Engineering and
became executive vice president. William also joined Koch Industries in 1968
and founded Koch Venture Capital. Apparently William lost $90,000 and Charles
was not too happy about this. He then ran Koch International Company for a
short period before founding Koch Carbon and then became vice president of
corporate development for Koch Industries.
William was successful as a chemical trader however he struggled. Some
of his ideas included purchasing Checker Cab and funding an onion pill to lower
cholesterol. These ideas were both flops. William was then fired by the board
after he tried to take over. William had always claimed the dividend payout was
$5 million in 1983 which is around $11 million in today’s dollars. William
complained that the dividend payout was so low that he had to borrow money for
his house and he was one of the wealthiest men in America. Around this time the
Koch brothers were sharing dividends between $20 to $30 million per year
(according to an article the company
only paid out a dividend of 7% of its annual earnings). This is actually a
small amount considering 90% of Koch Industries earnings are plowed back into
the company which has led to a substantial growth.
In 1983 William started Oxbow
Corporation and set up business in Florida to avoid state income taxes (I guess
incentives do mater). According to this article, William is a
very detailed oriented boss who hired smart people and compensated them
well. Although, his experience at Koch
Industries didn’t work out William seemed to work pretty hard being the first
one in at 7 a.m. and would make sure employees were prepared and sometimes
could lose his temper. William does have a softer side. He enjoys collecting
art and wine. In fact he has a wine collection of 40,000 bottles of wine that
are worth more than $12 million. His art collection consists of over 400 pieces
and according to this article he transports
them to his 42,000 square foot home in Florida to Cape Cod. On a single afternoon
he spent $240,000 for centerpieces for flower arrangements according to this article. William also
likes to sail and in 1992 won the American Cup for sailing after paying $55
million in 1992 according to this Sports
Illustrated article.
His love for sailing began when he was 13 years old and continued at a summer
school naval program in Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana. Then in 1984 he bought his
first bought a 75 foot Hood cruiser.
His house is worth close to $26 million
according to this recent article. According to this article he has so much
art in the house that he actually had to start hanging it from the ceiling.
William has more than $100 million of art and furniture in his house (I hope he
has an insurance on all that art). He has used his house in the past for
charity purposes however decided to cut this back in the early 2000’s. Not only
does William like to collect art and wine he also use to collect women similar
to his brother David. David in his playboy days had 3 dates per day.
While already married to Joan Cranlund in 1995 he tried to evict model Catherine de Castelbajac from a $2.5 million condo that he owned at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston according to this article. William claims that from October 1994 to August 1995 de Castelbajac ran up a bill of $47,000 at the Four Seasons hotel. William was seeing three women at one time (his wife, de Castelbajac, and Marie Beard). Just one year after he married Joan Cranlund he married Angela who was almost two decades younger than him. According to a 2001 New York post article Angela Browder Gauntt was a stunning blond with green eyes, unpretentious who herself was already divorced when a mutual friend suggested her and William get together. For their first date they went to the Commander's Palace in New Orleans. He sent flowers the next day but they only saw each other once or twice in the next nine months. Part of the reason was because he was still trying to handle Catherine de Castelbajac and he also had a daughter with another another lover named Marie Beard. William had been with many woman and was ready to have a real family.
Only after five dates William purposed in May 1996 and then they were married in November 1996. However, there was no honeymoon after the wedding. William was also traveling with his job so it made it hard to made time for his family. Things however got worse. In July of 2000 Angela successfully issued a restraining order according to this article against William for punching Angela in the stomach. The restraining order required Bill to live in the guest house or beach house while his wife Angela lived in the main house. Also Koch was not allowed to drink alcohol 24 hours before he visited his children. William openly talked about the fact that he went to rehab in 2000.
Angela however did alright in the end as she was paid $16 million in addition to making monthly child support payments of $21,800 ($10,900 per kid) for the two kids that they had together as seen here. In addition to this William also agreed to pay for college for the children. This agreement overruled an initial prenuptial agreement where Angela would have only got 1% of William’s net worth. At the time in 2000, he was worth $650 million which would have been a little less than $7 million. After the divorce from Angela William had former lover Marie Beard moved into his $30 million 30,000 square foot mansion. At the same time William reportedly trying to romance Barbara Chevellard. William is now married to Bridget Rooney who was married to Kevin Costner.
Speaking of family William also wants to build his own town in western Colorado that will just be for his friends, family, and historians. In 2007, William spent $51 million on four properties in Aspen, Colorado. One of the properties is 17,000 square feet. This of course was after Charles and David each purchased $2.5 million homes in 1992. This article talks about how beginning in 2007 William started to buy up land in Bear Ranch which is near the Ragged Mountains. The town has its own train station, saloon, and firehouse. William also uses his money for charity as well. In 1994, William gave $5 million to help fight crime in Kansas and founded the Koch Crime Commission according to this article. According to this profile William donated $64.6 million in 2011. He created and funded Oxbridge Academy for $50 million. Speaking of education William also had three degrees from MIT including a doctorate in chemical engineering which was 372 pages and entitled "Flow of Light Gases, Through the Voids, On the Surface, And In The Solid of A Solid Microporous Media" where the citation can be found here from the MIT library. Truly William Koch is an interesting man.
While already married to Joan Cranlund in 1995 he tried to evict model Catherine de Castelbajac from a $2.5 million condo that he owned at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston according to this article. William claims that from October 1994 to August 1995 de Castelbajac ran up a bill of $47,000 at the Four Seasons hotel. William was seeing three women at one time (his wife, de Castelbajac, and Marie Beard). Just one year after he married Joan Cranlund he married Angela who was almost two decades younger than him. According to a 2001 New York post article Angela Browder Gauntt was a stunning blond with green eyes, unpretentious who herself was already divorced when a mutual friend suggested her and William get together. For their first date they went to the Commander's Palace in New Orleans. He sent flowers the next day but they only saw each other once or twice in the next nine months. Part of the reason was because he was still trying to handle Catherine de Castelbajac and he also had a daughter with another another lover named Marie Beard. William had been with many woman and was ready to have a real family.
Only after five dates William purposed in May 1996 and then they were married in November 1996. However, there was no honeymoon after the wedding. William was also traveling with his job so it made it hard to made time for his family. Things however got worse. In July of 2000 Angela successfully issued a restraining order according to this article against William for punching Angela in the stomach. The restraining order required Bill to live in the guest house or beach house while his wife Angela lived in the main house. Also Koch was not allowed to drink alcohol 24 hours before he visited his children. William openly talked about the fact that he went to rehab in 2000.
Angela however did alright in the end as she was paid $16 million in addition to making monthly child support payments of $21,800 ($10,900 per kid) for the two kids that they had together as seen here. In addition to this William also agreed to pay for college for the children. This agreement overruled an initial prenuptial agreement where Angela would have only got 1% of William’s net worth. At the time in 2000, he was worth $650 million which would have been a little less than $7 million. After the divorce from Angela William had former lover Marie Beard moved into his $30 million 30,000 square foot mansion. At the same time William reportedly trying to romance Barbara Chevellard. William is now married to Bridget Rooney who was married to Kevin Costner.
Speaking of family William also wants to build his own town in western Colorado that will just be for his friends, family, and historians. In 2007, William spent $51 million on four properties in Aspen, Colorado. One of the properties is 17,000 square feet. This of course was after Charles and David each purchased $2.5 million homes in 1992. This article talks about how beginning in 2007 William started to buy up land in Bear Ranch which is near the Ragged Mountains. The town has its own train station, saloon, and firehouse. William also uses his money for charity as well. In 1994, William gave $5 million to help fight crime in Kansas and founded the Koch Crime Commission according to this article. According to this profile William donated $64.6 million in 2011. He created and funded Oxbridge Academy for $50 million. Speaking of education William also had three degrees from MIT including a doctorate in chemical engineering which was 372 pages and entitled "Flow of Light Gases, Through the Voids, On the Surface, And In The Solid of A Solid Microporous Media" where the citation can be found here from the MIT library. Truly William Koch is an interesting man.
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