Kenneth Eugene Behring (June 13, 1928 – June 25, 2019) was an American real estate developer, and former owner of the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks.
Early years
Born in Freeport, Illinois, Behring was the son of Mae (Priewe) and Elmer Behring. When he was four, his family moved to Monroe, Wisconsin, about north of Freeport. He grew up in poverty; his father worked in a lumber yard making 25 cents an hour, and his mother cleaned houses. Behring started working a variety of jobs around town starting at age seven: mowing lawns, caddying, transporting milk, selling newspapers, working at a grocery store, and at a lumberyard. He became a salesperson at Montgomery Ward at age 16, and started a side business selling sporting goods in town while attending Monroe High School.
A high school football player, he received a partial football scholarship to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but dropped out of college due to an injury that left him unable to play football, and therefore ineligible for his scholarship.
Career
Out of college, Behring, a car buff, worked as a salesperson at a Chevrolet and Chrysler auto dealership. At age 21, he started Behring Motors, a used car business in Monroe. A savvy businessman, he was earning $50,000 a year and had $1 million in assets by age 27.
Behring moved from Wisconsin to Florida in 1956 and started the Behring Construction Company in Fort Lauderdale. He became a land developer, founding Tamarac Lakes, a new active-adult (which later became all-age) community in 1962. It was built on an area that was formerly wetlands, pastures, and fields. The new development was incorporated as Tamarac, Florida on July 25, 1963. Behring's company eventually became the largest builder of single-family homes in Florida, and the tenth largest in the United States.
In 1972, Behring moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was involved in developing the country club at Blackhawk, California, and later, the Canyon Lakes Development in San Ramon, California.
In 1988, Behring and partner Ken Hofmann purchased the NFL's Seattle Seahawks football team from the Nordstrom family for $80 million. After the 1995 season, they transferred the team's operations to the Rams’ former facilities in Anaheim, California, a widely criticized move, although the team continued to play in Seattle at the Kingdome. Behring had failed to properly apply for relocation, on top of having his plans for a full move being scuttled when lawyers discovered that the Seahawks were locked into the Kingdome through 2005; in addition, the NFL threatened Behring with fining him $500,000 each day if he did not return the team from Southern California. Behring was forced to sell the Seahawks to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 1997 for $200 million, who elected to keep the team in Seattle.
Behring has been listed several times on the annual Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, including 1991, 1995, and 1997. In 1997, his last year on the list, he ranked #395, with an estimated net worth of $495 million. He has since been described in the press as a billionaire.
In 2004, Behring published a memoir called Road to Purpose: One Man's Journey Bringing Hope to Millions and Finding Purpose Along the Way. In 2013, he published a revised edition of the memoir titled The Road to Leadership: Finding a Life of Purpose. In his memoir, Behring describes himself as an "average man who achieved extraordinary material success doing a few simple things" who later discovered the "true foundation of joy" was finding purpose and causes worth fighting for.
Family
Behring married his wife Patricia (Pat) at age 21. They had five sons, and as of 2018, ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Philanthropy
Behring was involved in founding the Blackhawk Museum (originally the Blackhawk Automotive Museum) in 1988, created, in part, to house his personal collection of vintage cars; he was criticized for the tax exemption he sought and received for donating his cars to his museum.