Source of Wealth: inheritance
Kennedy's father Joseph was the son of a successful bar owner and sometime bank organizer who became one of the wealthiest people in the U.S. with interests in banking, movies, liquor and investing. He became the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and aimed his son even higher. JFK studied business at Stanford but left to serve in World War II. His status as a war hero and his father's fortune led to his becoming the youngest elected president. JFK was notorious for going around with no money, and his pals who chipped in for him knew to send the bills to Joe's office, says Gil Troy, author of Mr. and Mrs. President: From the Trumans to the Clintons. He also had a large income from trust funds. Like Hoover, he donated his presidential salary to charity. Because his parents were alive when he was assassinated, he never inherited even a piece of the family fortune, which we estimated at its height in 1990 to be about $850 million.
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