For a small state Maine has its fair share of billionaire property owners, but most have their official residences somewhere else.
There are at least two, however, for whom Maine is not ‘Vacationland,’ even if the state’s nickname is printed on their vehicle registration plates. According to Forbes, which maintains extensive lists of the wealthiest people on the planet, the two richest Maine residents are siblings Bill Alfond and Susan Alfond, each with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. Bill Alfond lives in Belgrade while Susan Alfond lives in Scarborough, according to Forbes.
They may be fairly low-key compared with some of their more flamboyantly wealthy peers but, the Alfond family is fairly well known in Maine where their last name graces many public buildings on hospital and college campuses.
Bill and Susan Alfond are two of the children of Harold Alfond, who founded Dexter Shoe Company in the late 1950s in the Maine town of the same name. The senior Alfond, who died in 2007, sold the company in 1993 to Warren Buffett in exchange for stock in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s investment firm.
According to Forbes, “the Alfonds have made a fortune from the rising value of those [Berkshire Hathaway] shares.”
Other billionaires known to own land or summer homes in Maine include John Malone, David Rockefeller, Robert Bass, Edward C. Johnson and his family, Charles Butt, and brothers Mitchell Rales and Steven Rales.