Fayez Sarofim, Houston Financier and Museum Benefactor, Dies at 93 – RisePEI

Fayez S. Sarofim, the Egyptian-born, Houston-based financier and mega-collector who turned identified for his funding savvy, has died on the age of 93. He died at his Houston residence on Might 28, a spokesperson for the household confirmed to the Houston Chronicle.

Born in Cairo in 1929, Sarofim was considered one of three kids. His father was a outstanding prescription drugs and agricultural merchandise distributor. After attending a boarding college in Cairo, Sarofim got here to the U.S. in 1946 to check meals know-how on the College of California at Berkeley, the place he graduated in 1949. Two years later, he accomplished an M.B.A. from the Harvard Enterprise College. 

Following enterprise college and a stint at a Houston-based cotton processor, Sarofim based his namesake monetary administration agency in 1958 on the age of 30. He gained a status for his funding methods and a staunch perception in American entrepreneurship. Ultimately incomes the moniker “The Sphinx,” he was identified for buying and patiently holding onto profitable shares reminiscent of Exxon Corp. (now Exxon Mobil Corp.), Coca-Cola Co., Microsoft, and Intel, as soon as remarking that, “Nervous vitality is a superb destroyer of wealth.” 

His firm would go on to develop into one of many largest funding advisors within the American Southwest, managing funds for main Texas private and non-private sector organizations like Rice College Endowment, The Brown Basis, Inc., the Cullen Basis, and Ford Motor Firm.

His fortune grew much more as a part of a deal led by investor Richard Kinder, who organized the acquisition of a Houston-based pipeline and vitality firm in 2006 for $22 billion. Between 1999 and 2020, he served on Kinder Morgan’s board of administrators.

He was married 3 times, first to Louisa Stude Sarofim, the Texas heiress of the Brown and Root fortune, whom he divorced in 1989 after a 10-year saga that resulted in what was then the most important divorce settlement within the state’s historical past. He’s survived by his third spouse, Susan Krohn. 

The billions Sarofim amassed would enable him to develop into a serious artwork collector. Having appeared on ARTnews’s record of Prime 200 collectors since from 1990 to 2015, he acquired works by Previous Masters like Lucas Cranach the Elder and El Greco, in addition to American artists Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe. He additionally purchased historical Coptic artifacts and American Indigenous objects.

The Museum of Effective Arts, Houston hosted an exhibition of his assortment final yr. Beginning in 1970, Sarofim donated to the MFA, contributing a big portion of the museum’s endowment over the many years. He put $70 million towards its current enlargement.

“It’s tough to overstate the impression of Fayez Sarofim on town of Houston and its establishments over his lengthy life,” mentioned the museum’s director, Gary Tinterow, in an announcement to ARTnews. “Like so many who formed this metropolis, he was born elsewhere however adopted his new dwelling with a particular fervor and loyalty. He ensured our stability and enabled our development.”