HISTORY OF ANA'S BEN E. KEITH ENDOWMENT
The E-Sylum (10/11/2020)
Book Content
As part of a press release on their budget for fiscal year 2020-21, the American Numismatic Association provided some background on the Ben E. Keith stock that fuels the organization's endowment. -Editor
History of the Ben E. Keith Company Stock Endowment
Kenneth Keith of Jolly and Wichita Falls, Texas, was the nephew of Ben E. Keith and an heir to the food-and-beverage company bearing his uncle's name. He also was an avid numismatist. In July 1975, five men broke into Kenneth Keith's home, which he shared with his brother Jim, in search of a valuable coin collection that, unbeknownst to the burglars, had been donated to the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in 1971. Jim was killed during the armed robbery, while Kenneth was beaten and bound. The ANA posted a reward for the capture and conviction of the men, who were later apprehended and convicted of murder. In 1976 Kenneth Keith set up his will naming the ANA one of the remainder beneficiaries to his shares of stock in the Ben E. Keith Company, a closely held business that is a leading food-and-beverage distributor, serving customers across dozen-plus U.S. states. Kenneth Keith died the following year.
The Ben E. Keith Company, one of the largest Anheuser-Busch InBev distributors in the nation, is listed by Forbes as the 121st largest privately held company in the United States.
Regarding the museum donation, I checked with the ANA's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum Director Doug Mudd, who writes:
"The collection was primarily of Mexican colonial coins and medals and a few Canadian coins and consisted of one main donation of several hundred coins in 1971 and then several other small donations over the next few years that included some US colonial notes (a dozen or so) along with Mexican and Canadian counterfeits. There are some nice pieces in the donation - the most notable being two rare Mexican colonial 3 real coins - one corroded and one in much nicer condition."
