Robert Muse Bass (born 19 March 1948) is an American
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman of
Aerion Corporation
Aerion Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Reno, Nevada. It was founded by Robert Bass of Fort Worth.
From 2004 until 2021, the company was developing a 10-passenger supersonic jet to cut transatlantic flights by three ...
, an American aerospace firm in
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...
.
In 2018 he had a net worth of $5 billion. Bass has served on the
Texas Highway & Public Transportation Commission.
Early life
Robert Muse Bass was born on 19 March 1948 in
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
. His father,
Perry Richardson Bass
Perry Richardson Bass (November 11, 1914 – June 1, 2006) was an American heir, investor, philanthropist and sailor.
Early life
Perry Richardson Bass was born on November 11, 1914, in Wichita Falls, Texas.Leslie WaynePerry R. Bass, 91, Patriarch ...
, was an investor, philanthropist and sailor. His mother,
Nancy Lee Bass
Nancy Lee Bass (1917–2013) was an American philanthropist. She was known as the " First Lady of Fort Worth, Texas."Steve CampbellNancy Lee Bass was the "first lady of Fort Worth" ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', March 1, 2013
Early life
Nancy ...
, was a philanthropist. He has three brothers:
Lee Marshall Bass
Lee Marshall Bass (born 1956) is an American businessman and philanthropist.
Early life
Lee Bass was born in 1956. His father was Perry Richardson Bass, an investor and philanthropist, and his mother, Nancy Lee Bass, was a philanthropist. His gre ...
,
Ed Bass
Edward Perry "Ed" Bass (born September 10, 1945) is an American businessman, financier, philanthropist and environmentalist who lives in Fort Worth, Texas. He financed the Biosphere 2 project, an artificial closed ecological system, whic ...
, and
Sid Bass
Sid Richardson Bass (born April 9, 1942) is an American billionaire investor and philanthropist.
Early life
Sid Richardson Bass was born on April 9, 1942. His father, Perry Richardson Bass (died 2006), built an oil fortune with uncle, Sid W. R ...
. His uncle is
Sid Richardson
Sid Williams Richardson (April 25, 1891 – September 30, 1959) was an American businessman and philanthropist known for his association with the city of Fort Worth, Texas, Fort Worth.
Life and career
A native of Athens, Texas, Athens in east ...
.
Bass attended
Governor Dummer Academy
The Governor's Academy is an independent school north of Boston located on in the village of Byfield, Massachusetts, United States (town of Newbury), north of Boston. The Academy enrolls approximately 412 students in grades nine through twelv ...
, and graduated from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, where he received a bachelor of arts degree.
He received a master in business administration from the
Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
.
Career
Bass's father founded Bass Brothers Enterprises in 1960 after inheriting $11 million from his great uncle
Sid W. Richardson in 1959.
In 1985, Robert Bass founded the Robert M. Bass Group as his personal investment company.
Bass also serves as president of Keystone, Inc. He founded
Oak Hill Capital Partners
Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in New York City, with more than $19 billion of committed capital from entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Robe ...
in 1986.
In April 1987, Bass and other owners of TFBA Limited Partnership bought and took private
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company (also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated) was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The company was rooted in the Taft family, family of William Howard Taft, the 27th Presid ...
for $1.43 billion.
In March 1988, Bass sold the
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, a ...
to
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, thanks to their mutual friend
Tom Barrack
Thomas Joseph Barrack Jr. (born April 28, 1947) is an American private equity real estate investor and the founder and executive chairman of Colony Capital, a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT). Barrack has for decades been a clos ...
.
In April 1988, he led a buy-out of
Bell & Howell
Bell and Howell LLC is a U.S.-based services organization and former manufacturer of cameras, lenses, and motion picture machinery, founded in 1907 by two projectionists, and originally headquartered in Wheeling, Illinois. The company is now he ...
.
In June 1988, Bass made an offer to purchase Macmillan Inc., the publishing and information company, but the company responded with a restructuring.
Bass formerly served as Chairman of the board at
Aerion Supersonic, a developer of supersonic business jets. Bass was replaced by Tom Vice as Chairman upon the announcement of a partnership between
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
and Aerion on February 5, 2019.
Philanthropy
Bass has served as chairman of
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
's board of trustees,
Stanford Management Company, the
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...
, and
Cook Children’s Medical Center
Cook or The Cook may refer to:
Food preparation
* Cooking, the preparation of food
* Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food
* Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry
* ...
. He is a trustee of Stanford University,
a director of Stanford Management Company, a trustee of the
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
, a trustee of
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...
,
Groton School
Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated ...
,
Middlesex School
Middlesex School is a coeducational, non-sectarian, day and boarding independent secondary school for grades 9-12 located in Concord, Massachusetts. It was founded as an all-boys school in 1901 by a Roxbury Latin School alumnus, Frederick Winsor, ...
, and the
Amon Carter Museum
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
.
Bass and his wife Anne donated $13 million to fund the renovation of Yale's Cross Campus Library, which was renamed the
Bass Library
The Anne T. & Robert M. Bass Library, formerly Cross Campus Library, is a Yale University Library building holding frequently-used materials in the humanities and social sciences. Located underneath Yale University's Cross Campus, it was comple ...
.
In 2005, they donated $30 million to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2013, they donated $50 million to Duke University to support Bass Connections, an initiative to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration and studies. In 2001, Bass and his wife donated $10 million to Duke to strengthen undergraduate teaching. They also donated $10 million in 1996 to establish the Bass Society of Fellows at Duke. They also contributed to the creation of Bass Hall in Downtown Fort Worth (performing arts venue located in Fort Worth, Texas that routinely hosts musical and theatrical performances).
Personal life
Bass is married to Anne T. Bass.
They have four children.
One daughter, Margaret, was featured in a ''Wall Street Journal'' article as an example of a student whose wealth and family connections helped her receive admission to an elite university. They reside in the neighborhood Rivercrest in
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
, and also have homes in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
They also have a home in
Seal Harbor on the southeast side of
Mount Desert Island, Maine
Mount Desert Island (MDI; french: Île des Monts Déserts) in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the 52nd-largest island in the United States, the sixth-largest island in the contiguous ...
(south of
Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park is an American national park located along the mid-section of the Maine coast, southwest of Bar Harbor. The park preserves about half of Mount Desert Island, part of the Isle au Haut, the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, and ...
).
References
External links
Aerion Corporation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Robert
1948 births
Living people
People from Fort Worth, Texas
American businesspeople
American billionaires
Yale University alumni
Benefactors of Yale University
Stanford University trustees
Private equity and venture capital investors
Corporate raiders
Bass family
People from Woodside, California
Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni
Brookings Institution people
The Governor's Academy alumni