Anne Cox Chambers Net Worth

What was Anne Cox Chambers's Net Worth?

Anne Cox Chambers was an American businesswoman and diplomat who had a net worth of $17 billion at the time of her death. That fortune made her one of the richest women in the world and the richest person in Georgia. Technically, she relinquished her shares in the family business to her children in 2016 for tax and estate planning purposes.

With her sister Barbara, she co-owned the family company Cox Enterprises, which works in media, communications, and automotive services. As a diplomat, Chambers served as the United States Ambassador to Belgium from 1977 to 1981.

Anne and Barbara's father, James Cox, Sr., founded what today is known as Cox Enterprises. He served as the 46th and 48th Governor of Ohio and a US Representative from Ohio. James Sr. also ran for President unsuccessfully several times.

A journalist by training, in 1898, James Sr. bought the Dayton Daily News. Within two years, he transformed it into one of the most successful local papers. In 1905, he acquired the Springfield Press-Republic and renamed it the Springfield Daily News.

While he focused on politics, his son James Jr. took a bigger role in the family business. James Jr. was instrumental in the company's expansion into radio. In 1939 the family bought the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta's WSB radio.

In the 1950s, the company expanded into broadcast cable systems in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Jim Cox Jr. established Cox Enterprises in 1968 to serve as an umbrella corp for the family's media empire.

When James Jr. died in 1974, Anne and her sister Barbara took the reins. Over the decades, Cox Enterprises would grow into a media behemoth. Today Cox generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue and employees around 55,000 people. Cox Enterprises is still a privately held conglomerate. Its most notable assets include cable company Cox Communications, Kelley Blue Book, and AutoTrader.

Unlike many billionaires, Anne vehemently opposed tax cuts for the wealthy. She famously said of proposed tax cuts:

"It's tainted money. I don't want it."

MARTIN BUREAU

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Early Life and Education

Anne Cox Chambers was born Anne Cox on December 1, 1919, in Dayton, Ohio to Margaretta and James. She had a brother named Jim Jr. and a sister named Barbara. The kids' father, a newspaperman and politician who served as the governor of Ohio, went on to become the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1920 elections. As a youth, Chambers was educated at the Hacienda Del Sol School for Girls in Tucson, Arizona, and at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. For her higher education, she attended Finch College in New York City.

Cox Enterprises

Upon the death of their brother Jim Jr. in 1974, the Chambers sisters gained a controlling interest in the family company, Cox Enterprises. The company operates in media, communications, and automotive services, and owns such major national brands as Kelley Blue Book and Manheim Auctions. In the 1980s, Cox moved its headquarters from Dayton, Ohio to Atlanta, Georgia. It went on to become the first company to bundle telephone, high-speed internet, and digital cable television over a single broadband network. In 2007, the company launched Cox Conserves, its national sustainability program focused on energy and water conservation, recycling and waste diversion, and investments in the community. Through the program, Cox has invested over $120 million in hundreds of sustainability projects.

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Other Roles

The same year she took over the family company, Chambers became the chairwoman of Atlanta Newspapers. Later, in 1977, she entered the world of politics when President Jimmy Carter appointed her the United States Ambassador to Belgium. Chambers served in the role until 1981. She subsequently became a director of the board of the Coca-Cola Company, as well as a bank director at Fulton National Bank in Atlanta, Georgia. Also in Atlanta, Chambers was appointed to the board of the city's chamber of commerce, making her the first woman to be appointed there.

Philanthropy

Chambers was significantly involved in philanthropy during her lifetime, especially related to the arts and education. She served on the boards of numerous cultural institutions, including the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Woodruff Arts Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. For several decades, Chambers also worked closely with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where she helped to create the fundraiser the Forward Arts Foundation. In the early 1980s, she served as the honorary chair of the fundraising effort to build a complex at the High that was designed by Richard Meier. Later, in 2006, Chambers facilitated a partnership between the High and the Louvre in Paris, France, resulting in the exhibition "Louvre Atlanta."

Honors

Chambers earned multiple honors for her various life's work, including the French Legion of Honour for her diplomatic service to Belgium. In 1983, she received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Oglethorpe University in Brookhaven, Georgia. Two decades later, Chambers was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005, one of the wings of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta was named after Chambers in recognition of her decades of contributions to the institution.

Personal Life and Death

Chambers was married and divorced twice. With Louis G. Johnson, whom she wed in 1940, she had two daughters named Katharine and Margaretta. In 1955, Chambers married Robert Chambers, with whom she had a son named James, who works in renewable energy.

On January 31, 2020, Chambers passed away at her home in Atlanta. She was 100 years old.

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