What Is John Adams Morgan's Net Worth?
John Adams Morgan is an American businessman and Olympic sailing champion who has a net worth of $100 million. Morgan earned his net worth as a descendant of the banker J.P. Morgan and American President John Adams. John has gained notoriety as the ex-husband of Sonja Morgan, who began starring on the Bravo reality show "The Real Housewives of New York" in 2010. Morgan won a gold medal in the 6 metre class at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. John co-founded the company Morgan Joseph LLC in 2002.
Early Life
John Adams Morgan was born on September 17, 1930, in Oyster Bay, New York. His father, Henry Sturgis Morgan, co-founded the investment bank Morgan Stanley, and his mother, Catherine Frances Lovering Adams, was the daughter of Charles Francis Adams III, who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy under President Herbert Hoover. Catherine was a direct descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and Henry was the grandson of J.P. Morgan. John grew up with four brothers: Henry Jr., Charles, Miles, and Peter. Morgan graduated from the Groton School in Massachusetts in 1949, then he enrolled at Yale University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953.
Career
In 1956, John became a partner at the NYC investment and merchant banking firm Dominick & Dominick, then he worked at Smith Barney (which is now known as Morgan Stanley Wealth Management) from 1966 to 1982. Morgan was a senior vice president at Smith Barney, in charge of the firm's corporate finance department, and he also served as vice chairman in charge of mergers and acquisitions. He was also a director and executive committee member of Smith Barney International Inc. In 1982, John established Morgan Lewis Githens & Ahn, Inc., a brokerage and retail firm, and three years later, the company organized a leveraged buyout with the industrial chemical manufacturer the Olin Corporation involving the cigarette paper business Ecusta. In 1987, the firm participated in the acquisition of the food service company Service America Corp. from Allegheny Beverage Corporation to the tune of $450 million (including cash and securities).
In 2001, MLGA Holdings bought the firm as well as John's broker-dealer license, and the following year, Morgan co-founded Morgan Joseph LLC with former Drexel Burnham Lambert CEO and president Fred Joseph. John then became the chairman of the Morgan Lewis Githens & Ahn, Inc. board of directors.
In 2010, Morgan Joseph LLC and Tri-Artisan Partners LLC merged, forming Morgan Joseph TriArtisan Group, Inc. John has served as a director on the board of trustees for several companies, such as Upham & Co., Inc., TriMas Corporation, Metaldyne Corporation, and Furnishings International Inc. He is also on the board of trustees for the Morgan Library & Museum, which started out as the personal library of J. P. Morgan and became a public institution in 1924.
Personal Life
John has been married five times, and his first wife was Elizabeth Robbins Choate, who he married in 1953. They welcomed son John Jr. before divorcing in 1957. Morgan wed Tania Goss in 1962, and they had son Chauncey before splitting up. John married Anne Chute in 1992, followed by future "Real Housewives of New York City" star Sonja Tremont in 1998.
Morgan and Tremont met in the late '90s at the NYC Italian restaurant San Pietro, where she worked as a hostess, and they later went out to dinner after running into each other in Aspen. John proposed to Sonja that night, and they wed a few months later. Before divorcing in 2006, they had a daughter, Quincy.
Sonja filed for bankruptcy after the divorce, and years after the split, John admitted that he still owed her $3 million that he was ordered to pay in the divorce settlement, but he claimed that he was destitute. They separated around the time that they were financing a movie, "Fast Flash to Bang Time," with Hannibal Pictures through Sonja's company, Sonja Productions. They backed out of the project after the divorce, and Hannibal Pictures won a $7 million lawsuit against Sonja. In 2010, Morgan married his fifth wife, Connie.
Real Estate
Morgan owns a private island near Stamford, Connecticut, called Caritas Island. A 14,000 square foot, 26-room estate sits on the 3.5-acre property. He put the island on the market for $18.9 million in 2011, then reduced the asking price to $15.4 million. In 1998, John and Sonja paid $9.1 million for a 4,500 square foot townhouse in Manhattan. Sonja listed the home for $9.95 million in 2013. At the same time, the former couple's 8,362 square foot home in the Rocky Mountains was on the market for $9.15 million.
