Bill Hewlett net worth: Bill Hewlett was an American engineer and entrepreneur who had a net worth of $9 billion at the time of his death. He was best known for being the co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company.
Bill Hewlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in May 1913 and passed away in January 2001. He graduated from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hewlett co-founded HP with David Packard. He was married to Flora Lamson from 1939 until her passing in 1977 and then married Rosemary Bradford. He became acquainted with Packard at Stanford and the two formed the company as a partnership in 1939 with a coin flip deciding the order of their names. The company incorporated in 1947 and had their initial public offering in 1957. Bill Hewlett served as president of HP from 1964 to 1977 and was CEO from 1968 to 1978. He then remained chairman of the executive committee until 1983 and vice chairman of the board until 1987. He served in the Army during World War II. Bill Hewlett passed away on January 12, 2001 at 87 years old.
Wealth and Philanthropy: In 1994, Bill and David Packard donated $77 million to establish the David Packard Electrical Engineering Building at Stanford University.
At the time of his death, David donated the bulk of his $4 billion estate to the foundation. Today the foundation's assets are worth more than $8 billion. It is one of the 20-largest foundations in the US.
In 1966, two years after David founded his foundation, Bill founded The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. When Flora Hewlett died in 1977 she earmarked a huge grant of equity and funds for the foundation. By the time the funds were delivered in 1981, the foundation received $300 million from Flora's estate. That's the same as $850 million today. With continued contributions and stock appreciation, by the mid-1990s the foundation controlled $800 million. When Bill died in 2001, he was worth $9 billion. He left approximately $8.5 million of his assets to the foundation. Today The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation controls $10 billion in assets.
