Billionaire James Crown Dies In Colorado Race Course Crash
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
James Crown, a billionaire and board member of JPMorgan Chase, died in a car crash Sunday after fatally colliding with an impact barrier at the Aspen Motorsports Park in Woody Creek, Colorado, according to The Colorado Sun. It was his 70th birthday.
Crown, who attended the White House State Dinner last week in honor of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being remembered by the rich and powerful.
“Jim lived a great Chicago story — one that tied our nation’s industrious past to an ever-hopeful future,” President Joe Biden wrote Monday. “He grew up the great-grandson of a sweatshop worker whose son turned a construction-supply company into an empire.”
“Throughout his own career as a business and civic leader, Jim continued to drive that legacy forward, bring out the best in his peers, and help shape the city he loved,” Biden continued, calling Crown “a good man, a dear friend, and a great American.”
While the official cause of death is pending, the Pitkin County Coroner’s Office said in a news release that “multiple blunt force trauma is evident” and that the manner of death was accidental.
James Crown was chairman, board member and trustee of numerous companies and organizations.
Crown, whom Forbes valued at $10.2 billion in 2020, had lived in rarified air. The business magazine ranked him 34th in America’s Richest Families in 2020.
The native Chicagoan spent a lot of time in Colorado and held business and civic positions in both states, per CNN. Crown owned the Aspen Skiing Co. and was chairman emeritus of the Aspen Institute board. In Illinois, he was a trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry, the Civic Committee and the University of Chicago.
It was only last week that Crown helped the Civic Committee, a nonprofit with a mission “to make our region a better place for everyone,” launch an initiative to raise tens of millions of dollars to reduce the Chicago crime rate, according to CBS News.
Crown was not only tied to the world’s biggest bank — having served on JPMorgan’s board since the 1990s — but was board director at defense corporation General Dynamics. In 2014, he was appointed to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board by then-President Barack Obama.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Jim’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Jamie Dimon, fellow billionaire and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told CNN. “Our thoughts are also with all of you who know and loved Jim, as much as I did.”
