Bradley Wayne Hughes (September 28, 1933 – August 18, 2021) was an American billionaire businessman, the founder and chairman of Public Storage,[1] the largest self-storage company in the U.S. doing business as a real estate investment trust (REIT).[2] At the time of his death, Hughes had an estimated net worth of US$3.3 billion.[3]
Hughes started his career in Los Angeles real estate until the early 1970s.[4] He subsequently established Public Storage in 1972. Initially operating out of a single location in El Cajon, California, it soon expanded to other sites around the country.[4][6] Hughes served as the company's president and co-CEO from 1980 to November 1991 when he became chairman and sole CEO.[7] He retired as CEO in November 2002 and remained chairman.[8] He was also chairman and CEO from 1990 to March 1998 of Public Storage Properties XI, Inc, which was renamed PS Business Parks, Inc (PSB), an affiliated REIT.[9][10]
In 2011, Hughes founded American Homes 4 Rent (AH4R), now known as American Homes, one of the largest single family rental owners in the United States.
Hughes created and funded the Parker Hughes Cancer Center in Minnesota that undertakes the research to develop drugs and treatment for children's leukemia and cancer.[11][12][13][14] After a $5 million donation to his alma mater, the Galen Center's basketball court was named after high school classmate and longtime friend Jim Sterkel.[15] As of 2019, Hughes had donated between $400–450 million to USC, by far the most generous donor in the university's history.[16][17] Most of the donations were anonymous, and he was friends with many notable USC athletes and athletic administrators, including O.J. Simpson, Al Cowlings, Sam Cunningham, and Lynn Swann, the latter of whom Hughes was credited with engineering his position as athletic director.[18] In 2014, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration from USC.[19]
Hughes was the largest donor to American Crossroads, a conservative political organization started by Karl Rove. As of 2010, Hughes had contributed $1.55 million to the organization.[20]
Hughes married Marjorie McKechnie in 1958.[26] Their son B. Wayne Hughes Jr. was born in 1959, and daughter Tamara in 1961.[26] The couple divorced in 1975.[26]
He married Kathleen Becker in 1983.[26] They had one son, Parker, born in 1990.[26] Parker died in 1998 at eight years old from childhood leukemia.[4]
Hughes married his third wife, Patricia Whitcraft, in 2017.[26]
^Under U.S. tax law, REITs are required to pay out at least 90% of their incomes to unitholders (the equivalent of shareholders). These amounts are taxed to the unitholder as ordinary income. "The Basics of REIT Taxation," Investopedia, at http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/08/reit-tax.asp
