[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 19, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6758-S6759]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO CARL H. LINDNER JR.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise to mourn the passing of a great
American and a man who did much to benefit the people of Kentucky as
well as his native Ohioans, Mr. Carl Henry Lindner Jr. Carl Lindner was
greater Cincinnati's most successful entrepreneur and a self-made
billionaire. He passed away this October 17. He was 92 years old.
Carl Lindner was born in Dayton, OH, in 1919, the son of a dairyman.
He quit high school to help out in his father's dairy store. That store
grew into United Dairy Farmers, a chain of dairy and convenience stores
that many northern Kentuckians frequent to this day to buy their famous
ice cream.
Mr. Lindner made much of his fortune in the banking and insurance
business. His name became famous across northern Kentucky and Ohio and
nationwide as the owner of the Cincinnati Reds from 1999 to 2005, when
he also served as that organization's CEO. Carl Lindner also in the
past bought and sold Kings Island amusement park, Provident Bank, and
the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper.
Always the optimist, Carl was famous for carrying with him cards that
he would hand out to anyone he met, with motivational sayings printed
on them. One frequent version of this card would read, ``Only in
America! Gee, am I lucky!''
Carl put his great wealth to use benefitting his community, bringing
thousands of high-paying jobs to Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. He
has been called a ``one-man chamber of commerce.''
He also generously gave millions of dollars a year to various
charitable causes, including, but certainly not limited to, the Lindner
Center of HOPE behavioral health center, the University of Cincinnati
College of Law, the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Reds, the Western &
Southern Open, Fort Washington Way, the Bond Hill/Roselawn library, the
West End YMCA, and the necklace lights on the cables of the Roebling
Suspension Bridge.
I had the benefit of knowing Carl quite well. He was an amazing man,
and his loss will be deeply felt by many. Elaine and I send our
condolences to his wife Edyth, his sons Carl III, Craig, and Keith, his
12 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren, and many other beloved
family members and friends.
The passing of Mr. Carl Henry Lindner Jr. is a true loss for the
people of northern Kentucky, Ohio, and the Nation. I know my Senate
colleagues join me in remembering and honoring Carl for his very
American success story, his service to his community, and the example
he leaves behind for others of a full life well lived.
[[Page S6759]]
Mr. President, the Cincinnati Enquirer published recently an obituary
for Mr. Carl Lindner. I ask unanimous consent that said article be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Cincinnati Enquirer, Oct. 18, 2011]
Carl Henry Lindner: 1919-2011
Billionaire Investor, Dead at 92, Was Cincinnati's Biggest Benefactor
(By Cliff Peale)
From humble beginnings running his father's dairy store in
Norwood, Carl Henry Lindner Jr. grew into a billionaire, a
friend of U.S. presidents and Greater Cincinnati's most
successful entrepreneur.
For nearly a century until he died late Monday at age 92,
the former Reds owner never shed the fierce competitiveness
and loyalty that made him a hometown icon.
His influence ran to every corner of Greater Cincinnati.
The high-school dropout bought and sold Kings Island, the
Reds, Provident Bank and the Enquirer. His name is on
buildings from the University of Cincinnati's business school
to the tennis center at Lunken Playfield.
But it was the banking and insurance business that made him
a billionaire. At his death, his American Financial Group
Inc. controlled assets of nearly $32 billion and he was
routinely listed as one of the richest men in America.
Ever the optimist, Lindner often carried an inch-thick
stack of cards with motivational sayings--one was ``Only in
America! Gee, am I lucky!''--that he handed out to anyone he
would meet.
He was a teetotaler, physically unimposing yet with a
prominent shock of white hair and a penchant for wearing
flashy neckties.
Even to his closest friends and colleagues, he was soft-
spoken and rarely confrontational. Yet some business partners
complained about unfair treatment and he flashed a harsh
temper when confronting reporters who wrote what he perceived
as unfriendly stories or criticism of his business dealings.
A devout Baptist and a longtime member of Kenwood Baptist
Church, Lindner used his wealth and influence behind the
scenes to become Greater Cincinnati's largest benefactor and
economic development force. At the height of his personal
giving he contributed millions of dollars a year to
charitable causes, and brought thousands of high-paying jobs
to downtown Cincinnati.
His companies brought thousands of employees to the region,
and the annual Christmas party that he threw at Music Hall
attracted some of the nation's biggest acts, including Bill
Cosby and Frank Sinatra.
Considered himself outsider
At the same time, Lindner thought of himself as an
outsider, building his business career outside of
Cincinnati's old-money elite. He was never a member of many
of the most exclusive business and country clubs and his bar-
the-doors business style, starting with a hostile takeover of
Provident Bank in the mid-1960s, was out of place in always
polite Cincinnati.
Perhaps the most public role of his career was his
ownership of the Cincinnati Reds from 1999 to 2005. Lindner
owned a minority stake both before and after that period but
was the Reds' CEO for six seasons, and each of those years
the team lost more games than it won.
He approved the trade for Ken Griffey Jr. in 2000, even
sending his private jet to bring Griffey to Cincinnati and
then personally driving the hometown star back to Cinergy
Field from Lunken Airport in his Rolls-Royce.
But as the Reds' losses mounted, Lindner never spoke
publicly to fans and privately bristled at talk-radio
criticism.
That period ended in late 2005 when Lindner sold a
controlling stake in the Reds to a group headed by Bob
Castellini.
Shy and scornful of reporters, Lindner nevertheless became
a focus of media attention because of his substantial wealth
and his far-flung business dealings.
The controversies included millions of dollars in political
contributions as his Chiquita Brands International Inc. was
waging a trade war with European countries, a bevy of
lawsuits and federal charges over business deals that
benefited Lindner and his company more than other
shareholders, and a high-profile battle with the Enquirer in
1998 over a series of critical stories on Chiquita.
Lindner built a national reputation in the 1980s as a high-
risk trader, becoming a business partner of symbols of the
decade's excess such as junk-bond king Michael Milken and
Cincinnati's own Charles Keating.
He was the classic ``value investor,'' buying properties
few other investors wanted and waiting years, or even
decades, to reap the benefits.
That gave him a portfolio including the old Penn Central
railroad, Circle K convenience stores and New York City
landmark Grand Central Station.
But Lindner spent the two decades before his death shedding
assets that didn't deal with insurance and transferring
others to his three sons. That left American Financial as
mostly an insurance and financial services company.
He lost his stake in Chiquita in 2002 when that company
emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 2004, Lindner, his
family and American Financial reaped nearly $1 billion in
stock when they sold Cincinnati's Provident Financial Group
Inc. to Cleveland-based National City Corp.
The moves consolidated the business around safer insurance
businesses. Lindner also transferred tens of millions of
dollars to his three sons and their families, solidifying for
generations a wealth that he never enjoyed growing up.
Starting from scratch
Born April 22, 1919, in Dayton, Ohio, Carl Henry Lindner
Jr. was the firstborn of a modest dairyman and his wife,
Clara.
Lindner quit high school to help in his father's Norwood
dairy store. Along with his father, he and his brothers
Robert and Richard, and sister Dorothy, built it into United
Dairy Farmers, a chain of dairy and convenience stores.
When the family founded what now is UDF on Montgomery Road
in Norwood in 1940, the first day's sales amounted to $8.28.
Lindner often talked about the modest surroundings of his
childhood, noting more than once that he picked up dates in
an ice-cream truck.
Robert Lindner's family eventually took control of UDF, and
Richard Lindner became sole owner of the Thriftway
supermarket chain before selling it to Winn-Dixie Stores.
Lindner married the former Ruth Wiggeringloh of Norwood in
1942. They divorced seven years later with no children. He
then married the former Edyth Bailey in 1951, and they have
three sons who all went into the family business: Carl III,
Craig and Keith.
Lindner cautiously entered the savings-and-loan and
insurance business, founding his flagship company American
Financial Corp. in 1959. In the early 1970s the company
gained control of Great American Insurance, which would
become its chief operating business.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the company bought and sold
companies in a variety of industries. Lindner took the
company private in 1981 and released little financial
information to the public, but in 1995 the company sold stock
to public shareholders under the new umbrella of American
Financial Group Inc.
In 2003, Keith Lindner left American Financial to
concentrate on the family's charitable pursuits. In 2004 Carl
and Craig Lindner were named co-CEOs of the company while
Carl Lindner Jr. remained chairman.
Lindner was a conservative icon, lobbying against Robert
Mapplethorpe's 1990 exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center
here and funding the Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.
But he was pragmatic as well, contributing more than $1
million to Democratic President Bill Clinton during Chiquita
Brands' battle over European banana quotas. He was well known
as one of the biggest givers in the country to both political
parties.
The good life
Lindner developed a taste for the good life, including a
sprawling home in Indian Hill and nearly a dozen Rolls-Royce
automobiles--with the trademark ``CHL'' license plate--that
he drove himself well into his 80s.
He also owned a home in the exclusive Ocean Reef community
of North Key Largo, Fla. There, he entertained lavishly,
including hosting former President George Bush in the early
1990s.
Lindner traveled around the country in his own private jet.
He dined often at exclusive restaurants like the Maisonette
or the Waterfront--where he was an investor --and also became
a regular at Trio in Kenwood.
Lindner received nearly every award Cincinnati has to
offer, including induction into Junior Achievement's Greater
Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Great Living
Cincinnatian award in 1994.
He was also on the board of directors of Citizens for
Decency through Law, an anti-pornography group headed by
American Financial co-founder and one-time Executive Vice
President Charles Keating.
Among numerous awards and honors throughout his career,
Lindner was named Man of the Year of the United Jewish Appeal
in 1978 and received the Friars Club Centennial Award in
1985. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by UC in 1985 and
by Xavier University in 1991.
Services not scheduled yet
Lindner's family has not yet scheduled memorial or funeral
services.
American Financial Group, where Lindner was chairman, said
Tuesday that the family had requested memorial gifts be made
to Kenwood Baptist Church.
Lindner is survived by wife Edyth, sons Carl III, Craig and
Keith, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
____________________