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Wealth is what you make of it
by Robert C. Powell III
Virginia Business
June 2005
A teacher at Cold Harbor Elementary
School in Hanover County has set up a letter-writing
project between pupils at her school and two schools
in Ghana. She visited Ghana last summer and returned
thinking that American children could learn something
from the culture of that West African country. Many
Ghanians, she noted, have little money but they have
rich lives.
In the United States, we tend to
measure wealth in terms of dollars and cents. This issue
of Virginia Business attempts to document the
100 richest residents of the state. Check out their
bios and we think you’ll agree the project provides
a telling snapshot of Virginia’s business community:
who’s stepping down, moving up, selling out or
starting new business ventures.
Any examination of wealth raises two questions: How
did you get it? And what are you doing with it?
We try to address both questions
in our annual special section. Many of the people on
this year’s list benefited from investments in
stock, real estate and growing businesses. But many
of them didn’t keep the gains entirely to themselves.
Instead, they used their wealth to enrich the lives
of others, through donations to programs and institutions
for health care, education and the arts. To get some
perspective on this generosity, we’ve added a
list of some of the major charitable donations made
in the state in recent years.
Wealth also is at the heart of two
stories in this issue involving upscale property. Contributing
writer Lisa Antonelli Bacon looks at the market for
historic estates in Virginia,
while contributing editor Robert Burke examines the
change under way on the Eastern
Shore as a result of the development of the Bay
Creek resort in Cape Charles.
Bacon reports that Virginia’s
historic estates offer a lifestyle that attracts families
from Washington, D.C., to California as well as investors
taking advantage of the roaring real estate market.
On the Eastern Shore, the invasion
of second home buyers has raised housing prices and
stimulated the economy. Nonetheless, many residents
are concerned about losing the rural ambience that makes
the area special.
Wealth, after all, is only worth
what you can achieve with it. Some Eastern Shore residents
believe that what they already have can’t be bought. |
