Dwight Schar is an American businessman. He is the founder of NVR, Inc., a Fortune 500 company that is the third-largest home builder (by revenue) in the United States. He currently serves as the company's Executive chairman and Chairman of Executive Committee. Schar was also a minority owner of the

Washington Commanders The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) E ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

from 2003 to 2021, as well as the former financial chairman for the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. Political action committee, political committee that assists the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republi ...

Background

Schar grew up in rural northeast

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and graduated from

Norwayne High School Norwayne High School is a public high school in Creston, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Norwayne Local School District, which also consists of a middle school in Creston, and one elementary school in Creston (which opened in January 2010 ...

in 1960. He then attended Ashland University (then Ashland College) in

Ashland, Ohio Ashland is a city in and the county seat of Ashland County, Ohio, United States, 66 miles southwest of Cleveland and 82 miles northeast of Columbus. The population was 20,362 at the 2010 census. It is the center of the Ashland Micropolitan S ...

, where he majored in education. After graduating from Ashland in 1964, Dwight began teaching, and on the weekends, he had a job selling homes. Schar soon left teaching to pursue a career in home building. In 1980, Schar founded his own company, NVHomes, which eventually acquired his former employer, Ryan Homes, in 1987; the company was thus renamed NVR. NVR lost billions of dollars and was forced to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992.

Political involvement

Along with his involvement in the Republican National Committee, Schar is also a well-known financial supporter of the Republican Party and numerous Republican candidates, making contributions through his company as well as private contributions from both his McLean, VA home and his home in Palm Beach, FL. In 1989, Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Marshall Coleman was backed financially by Schar. An investigation from the '' Richmond Times-Dispatch'' had discovered that one of Schar's companies had issued loans through the Virginia Housing Development Authority. In both the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns, Schar was not only a donor, but also a major fundraiser. In the 2000 campaign, Schar was a Bush "

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

", the distinction given to those committed to raising $100,000 or more for the campaign. In the 2004 re-election campaign, Schar rose to the new level of "Ranger," raising $200,000 or more. In 2003 Schar, along with Robert Rothman and

Frederick W. Smith Frederick Wallace Smith (born August 11, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor. He is the founder and chairman of FedEx Corporation, the world's largest transportation company. On June 1, 2022, Smith stepped down as CEO to become exe ...

, purchased a minority share of the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

, an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

franchise belonging to the

. The three owned a total of 40% of the team until 2021, when they sold their stake to majority owner Dan Snyder following discontentment with Snyder.

Congressional letter and investigation

Ryan Homes, a business under the NVR umbrella, received a from Senator

Sherrod Brown Sherrod Campbell Brown (; born November 9, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's ...

(D-OH) which asked the company to stop the practice of forced arbitration. Three senators joined in and asked that both Ryan Homes and NVR "remove the arbitration provisions from their agreements and stop requiring homebuyers to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to resolve disputes." USA Today conducted an investigation that found that Ryan Homes "ignored warranty requests for dozens if not hundreds of customers nationally."

Class-action lawsuit

A lawsuit filed by homeowners in Bella Collina, a community run by DCS Capital Investments, accused Paul Simonson, Randall Greene, and Richard Arrighi of "racketeering, embezzling and conspiracy." The lawsuit stated that the homeowner's association (HOA) should have been turned over to the homeowners instead of DCS Capital Investments; it was dismissed by a federal court a year later.

Philanthropy

In 2006, Schar donated $5 million to his alma mater, Ashland University, to help fund the construction of their new education building. The university named the new building "Dwight Schar College of Education" in his honor. In May 2016, he donated $10 million to George Mason University's school of policy, government, and international affairs, the school was renamed the Schar School of Policy and Government in his honor. In 2019 he donated $50 million to establish the

pediatric oncology Childhood cancer is cancer in a child. About 80% of childhood cancer cases can be successfully treated thanks to modern medical treatments and optimal patient care. However, only about 10% of children diagnosed with cancer reside in high-income cou ...

-focused cancer treatment center at

Inova Fairfax Hospital Inova Fairfax Medical Campus is the largest hospital campus in Northern Virginia and the flagship hospital of Inova Health System. Located in Woodburn in Fairfax County, Virginia, Inova Fairfax Hospital is one of the largest employers in the co ...

, which was named the Inova Schar Cancer Institute.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schar, Dwight 1942 births American billionaires Living people Ashland University alumni American real estate businesspeople Ohio Republicans Virginia Republicans Florida Republicans People from Creston, Ohio Businesspeople from Ohio Businesspeople from Virginia Businesspeople from Florida 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Washington Redskins owners Washington Football Team owners 21st-century philanthropists Philanthropists from Ohio Philanthropists from Virginia Philanthropists from Florida