(Bloomberg) -- Richard DeVos Sr., the billionaire co-founder of the Amway direct-selling empire who used his fortune to buy the Orlando Magic basketball team and back conservative political causes, has died. He was 92.

He died Thursday at his home in Ada, Michigan, according to an emailed statement from the Orlando Magic. The cause was complications from an infection. He had received a heart transplant in 1997.

With high school classmate Jay Van Andel, DeVos started Amway Corp. in 1959 in Ada, Michigan, and built it into the world’s largest direct-sales company based on revenue of $8.6 billion in 2017. They began selling a liquid cleaner, then expanded to offer vitamins, personal care and other household products. Individual distributors sold the goods through personal relationships and their own networks of salespersons, who in turn recruited additional distributors.

Amway, a contraction of “American Way,” grew to more than 3 million distributors, called independent business owners, selling over 450 home, personal-care and beauty products in more than 100 countries, according to the company’s website.

In 1979, following a long legal battle, U.S. Federal Trade Commission found Amway had fixed prices and overstated the profitability of its distributorships. It cleared the company of being an illegal pyramid scheme, one in which early investors profit from the entry fees of later investors.

‘Amway’s Motivator’

DeVos, who retired in 1993, was “Amway’s motivator,” leading rallies for distributors that filled public auditoriums and began with the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, Forbes reported in a 1975 profile.

“There’s no better company in the country to make the case for free enterprise,” he told a meeting of 5,000 sales representatives in Boston, according to Forbes.

Amway, now a unit of closely held Alticor Inc. based in Ada, spawned a personal fortune for DeVos worth $6.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He had homes in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Lantana, Florida.

He bought the National Basketball Association’s Orlando Magic in September 1991, two years after the franchise was established. He paid $85 million to a local ownership group, the New York Times reported. The team’s first draft pick after the purchase was Shaquille O’Neal.

Under DeVos, the Magic made the playoffs 14 times through the 2015-2016 season. The team lost its bids for the championship in each of its two appearances in the NBA finals.

“Mr. DeVos’ boundless generosity, inspirational leadership and infectious enthusiasm will always be remembered,” said Alex Martins, Chief Executive Officer at the Orlando Magic. “Simply, he was the team’s No. 1 cheerleader and the best owner that a Magic fan could ever want for their team. When the DeVos family purchased the Magic, his vision was that the team and organization would serve as a platform to improve the Central Florida community.”

Heritage Foundation

DeVos and his late wife, Helen, founded the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation in 1970. It gave money to groups such as the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, which promotes limited government, “traditional American values” and a strong national defense. The DeVoses also supported the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a Grand Rapids-based organization that advocates limited government, free markets and moral values.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, DeVos was the only person on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans to contribute to Rick Santorum’s bid for the Republican nomination -- giving the maximum allowed $2,500 -- and he and his wife each gave to the limit to Newt Gingrich’s campaign, the magazine reported.

Richard Marvin DeVos was born March 4, 1926, in Grand Rapids to Ethel and Simon DeVos, both descendants of Dutch immigrants.

“I was raised in a home that was short on material things but long on love,” DeVos wrote in his 2008 book, “Ten Powerful Phrases for Powerful People.” His father, an electrician, lost his job in the Great Depression.

Flight School

DeVos and Van Andel each attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids and served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, they returned to Michigan and made several attempts at starting businesses, including a flight school and air service, though neither was a pilot.

In the 1950s, DeVos and Van Andel worked as door-to-door salesmen of Nutrilite vitamins. By the end of the decade, the pair decided to apply that company’s business model, selling aspiring entrepreneurs the right to sell its products. Van Andel, who died in 2004, devised the “back-fence” sales strategy targeting friends and neighbors, according to Forbes.

DeVos’ son, Doug, became co-chairman of Alticor in 2002, along with Van Andel’s son, Steve.

“Rich and my father built this company from the ground up, and in many ways, Rich was the heart and soul of Amway,” Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel said in the statement. “His vision and spirit inspired our employees and independent business owners for more than 50 years. No one even comes close to Rich in the love he inspired in the hearts and minds of our family of employees and business owners. We will miss him terribly.”

DeVos and his wife married in 1953 and had three sons -- Dick, Dan and Doug, co-CEO at Amway-- and a daughter, Cheri. Dick DeVos ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for Michigan governor in 2006 and married Betsy DeVos, who became education secretary under President Donald Trump.

--With assistance from Scott Soshnick.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Altstedter in Mumbai at aaltstedter@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Gittelson at sgittelson@bloomberg.net, ;Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Laurence Arnold, Jonathan Roeder

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