Henry Earl Singleton

Age: 79

Net Worth: $800 million

Source of Wealth: Industrial and military manufacturing

Residence: Beverly Hills

Henry Earl Singleton’s wealth comes primarily from his stake in Allegheny Teledyne Inc., the hodgepodge of defense and industrial companies he cobbled over 30 years.

Singleton beat back attempts by corporate raider Ronald LaBow to take control. The company’s performance was lackluster for several years after Singleton handed over day-to-day operations to associates in the mid-1980s. In recent years, however, the company has seen renewed profitability.

A native of tiny Haslet, Texas and the son of a rancher, Singleton still lists himself on proxy statements as a rancher first and then an investor. Singleton attended the U.S. Naval Academy, and earned an engineering doctorate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before being made a vice president of Litton Industries Inc. in 1954.

Six years later he founded Teledyne and, with right-hand man George Roberts, built the company over the next three decades into 95 separate business units, churning out everything from unmanned military aircraft to Water Pik shower massagers.

Still a member of Teledyne’s board and chairman of the Argonaut Group insurance company (which Teledyne spun off in the 1980s), Singleton now spends much of his time managing his seven ranches in New Mexico and California, where he runs 100,000 head of cattle.

Ben Sullivan