Fayez Sarofim, local billionaire, philanthropist and founder of Houston's largest money management firm, has died.
He died May 28 in his River Oaks home at age 93, a spokesperson confirmed to the Houston Business Journal. Shelby Hodge with PaperCity first reported the news.
Geo H. Lewis & Sons is handling the pending funeral arrangements. Sarofim is survived by his wife, Susan, as well as three sons, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, two stepdaughters and multiple grandchildren.
Sarofim had been chairman of the board and co-chief investment officer of Fayez Sarofim & Co., which the company describes as one of the largest and oldest privately owned investment counseling firms in the U.S.
Within five years of establishing the firm in 1958, he was managing a corporate retirement fund for Brown & Root — a predecessor of Houston-based KBR Inc. — and the endowment of William Marsh Rice University. Now, Fayez Sarofim & Co. ranks No. 1 on the Houston Business Journal's 2022 Largest Houston-Area Money Management Firms List.
According to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list, Sarofim's net worth currently is valued at $1.6 billion. He also was one of the first investors in Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc., according to Forbes.
Fayez and Susan Sarofim became well known throughout Houston for their philanthropic contributions.
In 2020, Rice University announced the couple made an unspecified donation for the school's new arts building, which will be called Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall.
Also in 2020, Memorial Hermann Health System opened the Susan and Fayez Sarofim Pavilion, a 17-floor critical care tower at Memorial Hermann's Texas Medical Center hospital. The couple donated $25 million for the project — the largest gift Memorial Hermann had ever received when it was announced in February 2018.
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus transformation, which wrapped up in 2020, was supported in part by a $70 million contribution from the couple. Additionally, Sarofim loaned the art collection he quietly amassed over 60 years for the MFAH's "Three Centuries of American Art – Antiquities, European and American Masterpieces from The Fayez S. Sarofim Collection" exhibit last year. The museum described it as "one of the most significant collections of American art in private hands."
In addition to the Sarofims' personal contributions, Fayez Sarofim & Co. also has made significant donations in the local community, including to the United Way of Greater Houston.
William Gentry Lee, CEO of Fayez Sarofim & Co., told the Houston Business Journal in 2017 that he plans to carry on those philanthropic values into the firm's next generation.
“Fayez is a person of incredible ethics and loyalty,” Lee said at the time. “He’s bent over backwards to make sure he does things the right way.”
Sarofim was born in Egypt and earned a bachelor’s degree in food technology from the University of California before getting his MBA at Harvard Business School, according to the Fayez Sarofim & Co. website.