[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.

                          ____________________