The death of Edward M. Kennedy on August 25, 2009 marked the end of era. The Lion of the Senate received much praise for his 47-year contribution to American politics.
In his memoir – True Compass – “Teddy” provides a posthumous review of his life and of his famous family. It is a reminder that people leave a range of legacies when they die. Several of his siblings left their own mark, including his sister Eunice. Edward Kennedy’s political accomplishments are a great part of his legacy. (I have read about JFK and Bobby and will enjoy this read.)
There is the financial side of Edward Kennedy’s life (and of each Kennedy) which presumably continues to back many of the endeavours of the current generation. Edward Kennedy, apparently, reported a net worth in 2008 between $15 million and $72.6 million, but a year earlier the range was between $46.9 and $157 million. As a U.S. senator, Kennedy earned a base salary of $165,200 a year.
The main source of Kennedy's wealth was his father and family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, a former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, whose fortune stemmed from banking, real estate, liquor, films and Wall Street holdings that eventually grew to an estimated $500 million by the 1980s.
A big portion of that wealth came from Kennedy Sr.’s purchase of Chicago's Merchandise Mart in 1945 for $12.5 million. Spanning two city blocks and rising 25 stories, the sprawling limestone and terra-cotta mart had its own zip code. It was the world's largest building until the Pentagon was built in the 1940s. The Kennedy family sold its interest in the Merchandise Mart in 1998 for $450 million in cash and a $100 million interest in the purchasing trust. The holdings of Edward Kennedy included a string of publicly and non-publicly traded trusts and assets.
The Kennedy family contributed a great deal to public service. Liberal projects and public service work by the family is supported in part, I expect, by the resources available to them through family investments.
While we did not know the patriarch of the Kennedy family, we can glimpse the satisfaction he likely felt that his investments – in his family and businesses – contributed to the greater good.
The scale may be far different, but within our own families, each of us can support the work and the dreams of the next generation with careful planning and wise investments of our time, energy and financial resources.
Thank you for reading.
Jonathan Morse
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