By Mario Lotmore | Lynnwood Times Staff
January 12, 2021 – Sheldon Adelson, 87, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation died late Monday, January 11, following complications related to his cancer treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Adelson is survived by his wife Miriam, their two sons, ex-wife Sandra and their children, Gary and Shelley, and brother Lenny Adelson. His son Mitchell died unexpectedly in September of 2005.
Before becoming a successful business investor and political donor, Adelson sold newspapers as a kid then owned a candy-vending-machine business. After being discharged from the army, he started a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business named which sold a chemical spray to help clear frozen windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business.
Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost fifty businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur. As of September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of US$33.5 billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 17th in Forbes 400.
Adelson used his wealth to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and Jewish causes. He owned Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Israel Hayom; donated to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem; and helped paid for educational trips to Israel for young Jewish adults.
In 2016 Adelson donated $20 million to a super PAC supporting then candidate Donald J Trump’s candidacy. Adelson became the largest individual contributor to President Trump’s inaugural committee, donating $5 million. Over the last two years, Adelson donated $215 million into Republican-aligned super PACs, making him the largest publicly disclosed donors of the 2020 elections.
