Arizona: The Goldwater Gold

In the affluent ’60s, it almost seems appropriate that presidential candidates are themselves fairly well-heeled. Jack Kennedy, of course, was a millionaire several times over. So is Lyndon Johnson. It has been assumed for some time that Barry Goldwater, too, is a man of wealth, but the Goldwater family has never made public any information about it one way or the other. Last week TIME correspondents put together a balance sheet on Barry’s finances. The answer is—yes, Goldwater is a millionaire, and then some.

Growing Nest Egg. The Goldwater gold was mined mainly from two mother lodes: the Goldwater-family retail stores; and Chicago’s Borg-Warner Corp., where Peggy Goldwater’s father, R. P. Johnson, was a vice president and director until his death in 1932.

In 1962, the Goldwater family sold its retail business to New York’s Associated Dry Goods Corp. for $2,200,000 worth of Associated stock. Barry’s share was about 20%. His common stock holdings now include 7,555 shares in Associated Dry Goods (worth $445,700), 973 shares in Arizona Bancorporation ($20,400), and 90 in Borg-Warner Corp. ($4,320). He has life insurance with a cash value of $20,000. And he also has $37,000 cash on hand, a sizable chunk of which is earmarked to pay for the proud wedding he put on for his daughter Peggy last June. Thus Barry’s personal worth is roughly half a million dollars.

When Peggy Goldwater’s father died, he left her a one-third share of an estate valued at $980,000. Today Peggy’s nest egg has grown to include 1,690 shares of common stock in American Electric Power Co. ($77,740), 349 shares in Arizona Bancorporation ($7,330), 5,278 in Associated Dry Goods ($311,400), 2,491 in Borg-Warner ($119,568), 200 in Continental Casualty Co. ($15,600), 348 in General Electric Co. ($29,232), 798 in General Motors Corp. ($75,000), 417 in Hooker Chemical Corp. ($18,765), 87 in International Business Machines ($40,225), 550 in Maryland Casualty Co. ($33,550), 350 in Honeywell Inc. ($44,450), 700 in Standard Oil of New Jersey ($61,600), 400 in Texas Utilities Co. ($25,600), 186 in Universal Match Corp. ($2,418), and 1,576 in Valley National Bank of Arizona ($113,478). She also holds $71,000 worth of municipal bonds, and is nominal owner of the Goldwaters’ $200,000 home in Paradise Valley near Phoenix (on which a $33,400 mortgage balance still remains). Peggy’s total worth: $1,047,000.

It might have been more. The trustees at Valley National Bank, where Peggy’s inheritance has been handled for about 30 years, invested her funds mainly in bonds, so the soaring stock market did not affect her account. By comparison, the estate of Peggy’s mother, who received an equal share of the Johnson fortune in 1932 (and who died last November), has been estimated in probate at $2,700,000.

Easy Touch. All told then, the Goldwaters are worth about $1,700,000. Last year family income—$37,600 from coupon clipping, $22,500 Senate salary, $5,000 from Barry’s honorary post as chairman of the Goldwater division of Associated Dry Goods—totaled a tidy $65,000. The Goldwaters live well, so that total does not leave a surplus. Barry, for example, owns and pilots a $50,000 Beechcraft Twin-Bonanza. Each of the four Goldwater children gets a $3,000 gift check from Dad each year. This year he shelled out some money of his own for campaign expenses. And while he takes a very hard attitude on federal welfare handouts, Barry himself is “an easy touch,” says a bank officer. His contributions to such philanthropies as Trinity Cathedral in Phoenix, Washington’s Mount Vernon Seminary girls’ school and the United Fund last year ran to nearly $25,000—most of it in stock. As a result, the Goldwaters find themselves digging into their capital.

There are, however, some reserve aspects in the Goldwater financial picture. Peggy’s mother left a $2,500,000 trust fund for her seven grandchildren; Barry’s four offspring will share in that. And Barry’s own mother, now 89, is herself worth at least $2,000,000.