Louis Wolfson | |
---|---|
Born |
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
January 28, 1912
Died | December 30, 2007 Bal Harbour, Florida, U.S. |
(aged 95)
Occupation | Businessman: Financier Racehorse owner/breeder Philanthropist |
Louis Elwood Wolfson (January 28, 1912 – December 30, 2007) was a Wall Street financier and one of the first modern corporate raiders, labeled by Time Magazine as such in a 1956 article. Louis Wolfson became a self-made millionaire before he was 29 years old. He significantly contributed to the wealth of U.S. and global financial markets by creating the modern hostile tender offer, which laid the technical framework to the LBO. In later years he was a major thoroughbred horse racing participant best known as the owner and breeder of 1978 American Triple Crown winner, Affirmed.
As a result of a politically motivated decision in 1967, he was convicted of selling unregistered shares and obstruction of justice for which he served nine months in a federal prison. The politically motivated conviction eventually led to the 1969 resignation of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, who first returned a $20,000 retainer to a Wolfson foundation.
Wolfson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but his family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, when he was one year old.
The child of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Wolfson and his seven siblings grew up in Jacksonville, where his father was a junk man/scrap metal dealer. In his teens, he boxed professionally under the name "Kid Wolf", earning from $25 to $100 per fight. Wolfson was an outstanding athlete and an All-Southern end for Jacksonville's Andrew Jackson High School, who went to the University of Georgia to play football. He left the university after two years, never graduating. After dropping out of college, he raised $10,000: half from a wealthy Georgia football fan, Harold Hirsch, and half from his family.