Laurence Tisch

[3] His father, a former All-American basketball player at the City University of New York, owned a garment factory as well as two summer camps which his wife helped him run.

[4] In 1946, he made his first investment, purchasing a 300-room winter resort in Lakewood, New Jersey with $125,000 in seed money (roughly equivalent to $1.5 million at 2012 prices) from his parents.

In 1960, using the proceeds from their hotel empire, Tisch gained control of Loews Theaters, one of the largest movie house chains at the time, with Bob and Larry as co-chairmen of the company.

They were correct in this assumption and would later tear down many of the centrally located old theaters to build apartments and hotels reaping millions in profits.

In 1968, Loews acquired Lorillard, the 5th largest tobacco company in the US at the time, which owned the popular brands Kent, Newport and True.

[1] Through acquisitions, Tisch built Loews' into a profitable conglomerate (with 14 hotels, 67 movie theaters, CNA Financial, Bulova, and Lorillard) with revenues increasing from $100 million in 1970 to more than $3 billion in 1980.

[6] In 1986, CBS Inc. was the target of several hostile takeover attempts by the likes of Ted Turner, Marvin Davis, and Ivan Boesky.

"[1] Tisch made major donations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York University, the NYU Medical Center and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Tisch's donations also provided funding for a professorship in law, which was established in 2010 and is held by noted legal scholar Richard Epstein.