Richard Rainwater

Richard Edward Rainwater (June 15, 1944 – September 27, 2015) was an American investor and philanthropist.

Richard Rainwater was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1944.

He grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and investors, and was exposed to the world of business and finance at an early age.

Rainwater's father, Sam, was a successful businessman and investor, who owned a number of companies in the Fort Worth area.

From a young age, Rainwater was exposed to the world of business and finance from his father.

His father started off as the owner of a wholesale grocery business and his mother was a clerk at J.C. Penney.

He is of Lebanese ancestry.

Rainwater graduated from R. L. Paschal High School.

In 1962, he was initiated as a member of the Tau chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at the University of Texas at Austin and in 1966, he graduated with a degree in mathematics.

In 1968, he earned a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

From 1968 to 1970, Rainwater worked for Goldman Sachs.

In 1970, Sid Bass, a classmate of Rainwater, invited him, then 26 years old, to manage the Bass family investments.

From 1970 to July 1986, Rainwater served as the chief investment advisor to the Bass family.

He was given $5 million to invest during his first year and managed to lose it all.

Rainwater then sought a more methodical investment strategy by studying investors including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and David Dodd.

In the 1980s, he acquired a stake in the Bass family's oil and gas company, which he later sold for a significant profit.

He also invested in a number of other energy companies, including Pennzoil and Diamond Offshore Drilling, and generated significant returns for his investors.

In addition to his investments in the oil and gas industry, Rainwater was also involved in real estate.

He was instrumental in the development of the Las Colinas neighborhood in Irving, Texas, and helped to transform the area into a thriving business district.

He was also involved in the development of other real estate projects, including the Harbor Pointe office complex in Dallas and the Lincoln Plaza.

Notable investments by Rainwater included:

Rainwater eventually transformed the Bass family fortune from $50 million into $5 billion, amassing $100 million for himself by the time he started investing his own capital in 1986.

In 1986, Rainwater joined forces with investor Sid Bass to form the investment firm Bass Brothers Enterprises.

Together, they made a number of successful investments, including a stake in the Walt Disney Company.

Rainwater's investment success earned him a reputation as a savvy and successful investor, and he was often sought after for his expertise and advice.

He was known for his ability to identify undervalued assets and create value through careful investment and strategic planning.

One of Rainwater's most successful investments was in the oil and gas industry.

Rainwater's first marriage, to his high school sweetheart, Karen, ended in divorce in October 1991, after 25 years.

They had three children: Matthew, Todd, and Courtney.

In December 1991, 2 months after his divorce was finalized, Rainwater married financier Darla Moore and moved to Manhattan.

At that time, he took a year off.

Most of the time, he lived apart from his wife.

Rainwater often visited Canyon Ranch and acquired the spa via Crescent Real Estate.

In 1996, he was recognized as Kappa Sigma Man of the Year.

Between 2009 and his death in 2015, he suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare disease involving neurodegeneration.

During his lifetime, Rainwater donated over $380 million to charitable causes and left nearly all of his estate to his charitable foundation.

Rainwater grew up in Fort Worth, Texas.

With an estimated net worth of $3 billion, he ranked 211th on the Forbes 400 in 2015.

His investing style was described as "analytically rigorous but opportunistic and Texas-sized in its audacity."

Rainwater was a mentor and early backer of investors including Eddie Lampert, Roger Staubach, and David Bonderman.