Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel dies at 80 [View All]

[UrbScotty]

Being a liberal, I'm not one who likes to dance on people's graves. I mean, hey, at least he gave a rat's Ashcroft about his community, unlike many Republicans.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Jay Van Andel, the co-founder of Amway Corp. who helped parlay neighborhood soap sales into a billion-dollar business and later became a leading philanthropist for conservative causes, has died. He was 80.

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Amway made its fortune by relying on a worldwide network of independent, mom-and-pop distributors to sell products ranging from furniture polish to burglar alarms, and to recruit other distributors.

The company now operates in more than 80 countries and territories around the world, with 13,000 employees and millions of distributors. Its parent company, the privately held Alticor Inc., had worldwide sales of $6.2 billion for the year ending Aug. 31, 2004, with Asia now its primary market.