California Conservative

AP reports: “Wal-Mart heir John T. Walton, who died in the crash of his experimental, ultralight aircraft, was remembered as a friendly man who threw his considerable financial support behind efforts to educate low-income children.”

Sounds like a man even liberals could embrace.

“Walton, the middle of three sons of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and a member of the company’s board, was a major advocate of school vouchers, supporting efforts to create taxpayer-funded ways for students to attend private schools.”

So much for liberal love.

“Walton founded the Children’s Scholarship Fund in 1998 to provide low-income families with money to send their children to private schools. The foundation started with $67 million from the Walton Family Foundation and benefited more than 67,000 children.”

It’s the point many forget: Don’t condemn the wealthy for they’re in the position to be philanthropic. Without the rich, there would be less charitable giving.

A man of service:

“John Walton was an Army veteran who served with the Green Berets as a medic during the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Silver Star for saving the lives of several members of his unit while under enemy fire, according to the company.”

An honorable life lived.

“In March, Forbes magazine listed John Walton as No. 11 on its list of the world’s richest people with a net worth of $18.2 billion. He was tied with his younger brother, Jim, one spot behind his older brother, Rob, who is Wal-Mart chairman, and just ahead of his sister, Alice, and his mother, Helen.”

John Walton was 58.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2005 at 8:19 am and is filed under Capitalism, Culture, Miscellania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.