Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. was, arguably, the most universally known figure in western New York, owner of the Buffalo Bills, chieftain of a tribe of cultish fans who worshiped the perennially losing team with monk-like intensity. He understood what his flock craved and kept the Bills in Buffalo despite the city's decline. Even when he died last year, at 95, his estate arranged for the team to go to someone willing to leave the Bills where they were, playing in Ralph Wilson Stadium in suburban Buffalo.
Even in death, it seems, Wilson will retain his position as the area's foremost citizen. A sum of $1.2 billion left by Wilson in an irrevocable trust will go toward efforts to improve life in western New York, as well as Wilson's native southeastern Michigan, the trustees of his foundation announced today. Wilson, apparently, left most of the investing decisions to those trustees, a group including his wife, Mary. As for specifics about what they'll do with the money, the trustees will only say that they'll broadly tackle areas like early childhood development and economic growth. The foundation is currently building its staff and will start doling out the funds in 2016, continuing for the next two decades. It already has plans to give out some $60 million this year.
Other than his long-time ownership of the Bills, Wilson largely escaped attention. He never appeared on the FORBES 400 list of the richest Americans, never signed The Giving Pledge, never achieved the near-celebrity status of other NFL owners; Ralph Wilson was, in other words, never a Jerry Jones, though his team and Jones' Dallas Cowboys certainly competed often, most notably in the 1993 and 1994 Super Bowls won by the Cowboys. The extent of Wilson's fortune wasn't clear until after his death when Terry Pegula, an oil and gas billionaire who already owned the Buffalo Sabres, bought the Bills for $1.4 billion.
The origins of Wilson's wealth likely come from the insurance business he took over from his father. He widened the company's reach to TV stations, highway construction, oil and gas drilling and automotive parts, according to The New York Times. Wilson was a shareholder of the Detroit Lions--he grew up a Lions fan in the Motor City and spent much of his adult life there--before becoming a founding member of the A.F.L., buying a franchise for $25,000 in 1960, later naming it the Bills. His enduring management of the team earned him a spot in Canton, Ohio, at the Football Hall of Fame five years before he died.
