Perry Richardson Bass

Perry Richardson Bass was born on November 11, 1914 in Wichita Falls, Texas.[1][2][3] He was educated at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.[1] He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology in 1937.[1][2]

He worked for his uncle, Sid W. Richardson, a rancher and oil wildcatter, in the 1940s and 1950s.[4] Upon his uncle's death, he inherited his oil and ranching interests, worth several million dollars.[1]

As a result of good investments, Bass was worth US$1 billion by 2005 and was the 746th-wealthiest American citizen.[4] He became a philanthropist. He funded the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.[3] In 1991, he donated US$1 million to 50 institutions.[2] The Perry R. Bass Marine Fisheries Research Center in Palacios, Texas is named in his honor.[5]

With his wife, he has donated art to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.[3] The collection includes Street in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and Enclosed Field with Plowman by Vincent Van Gogh as well as Fruit Dish, Bottle, and Guitar by Pablo Picasso.[3] It also includes paintings by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Marc Chagall and Mark Rothko as well as sculptures by Auguste Rodin, Aristide Maillol and Simon Segal.[3]

Perry built his own wooden Snipe sailboat; in 1935, while studying at Yale, he won the Snipe class world sailing championship.[6][7] He was navigator for Ted Turner's "American Eagle" when it won the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race in 1972.[8]

He married Nancy Lee Muse in 1941.[4][3] They had four sons, all notable businessmen and philanthropists, and all billionaires: Sid Bass (born 1942),[3] Ed Bass (born 1945),[3] Robert Bass (born 1948)[3] and Lee Bass (born 1956)[3]

He died on June 1, 2006, in Fort Worth, Texas.[1]