Chancellor made a legacy before White Stallion bankruptcy

EVANSVILLE — Steve Chancellor, who grew up in the Warrick County community of Elberfeld, carved a wide swath across the area business community in his day.

Upon his induction as a laureate in the Evansville Regional Business Hall of Fame in 2018, Chancellor recalled that his companies over the years had created about 4,000 local jobs.

"To every young person in this room starting your career: You do not have to leave Evansville or Indiana to be a success,” Chancellor said then. “If you work hard, have a vision, plenty of persistence and a little patience, you can grow and achieve a place in life where you can call presidents, kings and generals true friends who trust you, rely upon you and count on you. For me, it all happened right here.”

Chancellor began his career nearly 50 years ago with a small coal company, Black Beauty Coal, which grew into the largest privately held coal company in the eastern United States. White Stallion Energy, which was formed in 2017, marked Chancellor's return to the coal industry. He has worked for and founded many companies and subsidiaries in the Evansville area, including AmeriQual Foods and Packaging, Omni Plastics, Gibco Motor Express and others.

A few things have changed in the years since.

The Courier & Press reported in February that Chancellor was selling property. Chancellor's Henze Road luxury estate has hosted high-dollar fundraising events attracting the biggest names in American politics, entertainment and the U.S. Armed Forces.

Chancellor has served on many local and national boards and established the Chancellor Foundation for International Wildlife Conservation. He and his wife, Terri, formed the Chancellor Oncology Center at Deaconess Health System.

Chancellor hosted a "Trump Pence Victory" fundraiser in August 2016, in the heat of Donald Trump's ultimately successful campaign for the presidency that year. Trump, running mate and then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani attended the event, which Chancellor later said raised "north of a million" for Trump.

On Aug. 30, 2018, when Trump flew to Evansville for a rally at the Ford Center while he was still president, Chancellor and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and their wives greeted Trump's arrival on Air Force One at Tri-State Aero. The Braun and Chancellor parties joined Trump in his limo for the ride into town.

But there have been no high-profile fundraisers at the Henze Road property in years.

Chancellor owed slightly more than $38,000 in Vanderburgh County property taxes on the estate in February, but he paid those and subsequent property taxes, calling it a simple mistake. American Patriot Group LLC, White Stallion's parent company under Chancellor, also was more than $28,000 in arrears on its county property taxes in February — but those taxes also were paid up.

The fall installment of property taxes were all paid by the due date in November, according to the Vanderburgh County Treasurer's Office.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Chancellor made a legacy before White Stallion bankruptcy