Hixon family

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Source of wealth: Investments

Residence: Pasadena

The modern progenitor of Pasadena’s Hixon family, Joseph Hixon, made a large investment in AMP Inc. stock back in the early 1940s. The shares paid off handsomely with the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent build up of the United States’ industrial base.

AMP is now the world leader in electrical and electronic connection devices things like splicers, cables, switches and touch-screen monitors. The company, located on Friendship Road in Harrisburg, Pa., has a market value of about $8 billion.

In 1981 the Hixon family merged its own holding company with AMP. Joseph’s nephew, 58-year-old Joseph Hixon III of San Antonio, Texas, is a member of the company’s board of directors.

Joseph’s son, 82-year-old Alexander Paul, and his wife Adelaide Hixon of Pasadena are intensely private philanthropists. A spokeswoman for the couple, who declined to give her name, said the Hixons are nettled each year when they appear on Forbes’ list of wealthiest Americans. They like to be left alone, she said.

The couple are said to have a passion for fly fishing and regularly spend time wading in Montana and Sun Valley, Idaho, where one of their sons lives.

Ben Sullivan