Source of Wealth: mining, investments
Hoover was probably the most successful businessman among the presidents and one of the wealthiest. An orphan, he was raised by his uncle, a doctor and school principal in Oregon. At Stanford University, he excelled in geology. After graduation, Hoover held a series of increasingly senior jobs with mining consulting firms outside of the U.S., which eventually allowed him to invest directly in mining properties. By 1908, he was earning $100,000 per year, says Gorge H. Nash, author of the three-volume Life of Herbert Hoover. By World War I, when he was just 40, he was worth somewhere between $1 million and $5 million, Nash says. When war broke out, he began to devote himself to public life, turning down even more lucrative job offers. The future president worked without salary as head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. While serving as secretary of commerce and president, Hoover donated his salary to charity, according to Timothy Walsh, director of the Herbert Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa.
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