26 Facts About Sam Zell

Companies founded by or controlled by Zell include Equity Residential, Equity International, EQ Office, Covanta, Tribune Media, and Anixter.

In eighth grade, Sam Zell took pictures at his prom and sold them.

In 1963, Sam Zell graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

Sam Zell acquired Arlington Towers, then the tallest building in Reno, for $9 million.

In 1968, Zell founded the predecessor of Equity Residential and was joined a year later by his former partner, Robert H Lurie.

Sam Zell then pursued taking in more investors to spread the risk.

In 1976, Sam Zell founded the predecessor to EQ Office to invest in office buildings.

In 1985, Sam Zell acquired Itel Corporation, a diversified transportation and logistics company, shortly after it emerged from bankruptcy.

In December 2007, in a leveraged buyout, Sam Zell acquired control of Tribune Media, owner of the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, Newsday, The Hartford Courant, and other newspapers as well as the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field.

Sam Zell oversaw 4,200 layoffs while giving large bonuses to the executives and hosting lavish beer-and-poker parties in the office of former publisher Robert R McCormick, long considered a shrine.

In December 2008, less than a year after Sam Zell acquired the company, due to the increased debt and the effects of the Great Recession, the company filed the largest bankruptcy in the history of the American media industry, listing $7.6 billion in assets against a debt of $13 billion.

Sam Zell relinquished control of Tribune upon its emergence from bankruptcy in December 2012.

In 1999, Sam Zell endowed the Sam Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan.

Sam Zell endowed the Helen Zell Writers' Program and the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program at the University of Michigan.

Sam Zell funded the establishment of the Zell Center for Risk Research and the Zell Scholar Program at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

In 2012, Sam Zell donated $10 million to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

In 2014, Sam Zell donated $10 million to Start Early, which promotes early childhood development in underserved communities in Illinois.

Sam Zell donated $3.1 million dollars to the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel.

Sam Zell donated to Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a free market oriented Israeli think tank founded by Daniel Doron, the American Jewish Committee and the Bernard Sam Zell Anshe Emet Day School, a Chicago Jewish primary school named after his father.

Sam Zell often rode his Ducati to work at high speeds and he once rode a motorcycle at 145 miles per hour across the pampas.

Sam Zell formed Zell's Angels, a group of mostly business tycoons who would ride motorcycles worldwide.

Sam Zell was a skier, racquetball player, paintball enthusiast, and sports fan.

Sam Zell had homes in Chicago, Sun Valley, Idaho, and Malibu, California.

Sam Zell died on May 18,2023, at the age of 81 after a short illness.

Sam Zell donated $100,000 to Restore Our Future, the Super PAC supporting the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign.

Sam Zell has made smaller contributions to members of both the Democratic Party and Republican Party.