Wayne Huizenga

Did You Know?

• Huizenga donated $4 million to Nova Southeastern University, which named its business school after him.
• He was named the 2005 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year.

Early life and education

Wayne Huizenga’s family roots trace back to the Netherlands, where his grandfather, Harm Huizenga, began a trash hauling business with a horse and wagon in suburban Chicago in 1894. Wayne was born on December 29, 1937, at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois, as the first child in a family of garbage haulers. In 1940, his family lived in a Berwyn, Illinois apartment. He had a sister, Bonnie, five years younger.

He attended Chicago Christian High School for his sophomore year. In 1953, the Huizengas moved to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area, where his father worked as a building contractor. Wayne finished high school at Pine Crest School, playing football and serving as senior class treasurer, graduating in 1955. He returned to Chicago in 1956 and enrolled at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but left after three semesters.

For about five years after high school, he held low-wage jobs. In September 1959, he enlisted in the United States Army Reserve and completed six months of active duty.

Career

In Fort Lauderdale, Huizenga started a waste management business similar to his grandfather's. In November 1961, a civil suit was filed by Thomas Millwood, who alleged that Huizenga attacked him after Millwood refused his offer to haul trash; the jury awarded Millwood $1,000 in damages. In 1962 Huizenga borrowed $5,000 from his father and convinced a rival hauler to sell him used trucks, founding Southern Sanitation Service. Beginning with one garbage truck in 1968, he created Waste Management, Inc., acquiring 133 small haulers by the time of its initial public offering in 1972.

He left Waste Management in 1984 and soon bought companies including suppliers of portable toilets and water bottles. He repeated the acquisition model with Blockbuster Video, buying a handful of stores in 1987 and building it into the leading U.S. movie-rental chain by 1994. In December 1992 he became a member of the Non-Group, a civic organization of Miami-Dade business elites. In 1995 he invested $64 million of his own money and raised $168 million to acquire Republic Industries, becoming its chairman; the company spun off Republic Services in 1998 and was renamed AutoNation, the largest U.S. automotive dealer. In October 2004 he sold Boca Resorts to The Blackstone Group for $1 billion, netting $192 million.

Personal life and death

Huizenga married Joyce Vander Wagen on September 10, 1960; they had two children, Wayne Jr. and Scott, and divorced in 1966. They remained married until her death on January 3, 2017, after a fourteen-year battle with cancer. In May 2004 he purchased a private luxury yacht from golfer Greg Norman for $77 million, later adding a helipad for a 12-seat helicopter; Power & Motoryacht ranked it the 43rd-longest yacht in the world in August 2004. In the 1980s he began acquiring 2,000 acres north of West Palm Beach, and in 1996 established the Floridian Golf & Yacht Club there, with a Gary Player–designed course. He renamed his yacht Floridian and sold the club and estate to Jim Crane in 2010. Huizenga died aged 80 of an undisclosed cancer at his home in Fort Lauderdale on March 22, 2018.