James Henry Binger

Personal

Vocation

Family

American lawyer and business executive at Honeywell, Inc. Although he began his career as an attorney, he joined Honeywell , one of his corporate clients, in 1943. He worked his way up to President, assuming that office in 1961. Four years later, 1965, he became CEO. A philanthropist, he founded the Jujamcyn theatre company in New York. His hobbies centered around his love for horses; he raced them and played polo, founded a polo club and bought a farm. He was part owner of the Minnesota Vikings professional football team. He and his wife were married for 65 years until her death in December 2002. They had three children: James born in 1941; Cynthia a year later; Judith in 1946. Judith died 1989. Binger died of colon cancer on 3 November 2004. In December 2005, Minnesota state announced a surplus, including a death duties tax payment of $112M. Although not stating where this had come from, it was revealed as the largest estate tax payment state officials could ever recall. Noa Staryk, granddaughter of Binger, later confirmed it was from Binger's estate – and that they were pursuing court action to recover $200M given in a late will change to Jane K. Mauer. A tax expert estimated that there would have been a similar size payment to Federal Tax authorities, and estimated the size of the estate at $900M, even before including setting up the Robina Trust fund of $200M. Link to Wikipedia biography