Who's Your Daddy? It Does Make A Difference

From Janie Burke on the League’s trip to Hearst Castle:

Who’s your daddy? It does make a difference as we learned on our May 2009 destination to the Hearst Castle in San Luis Obispo, CA. The daddy, George Hearst, grew up in Missouri and after graduating from mining school, he tried his hand at farming, selling shoes, and prospecting. He missed the gold rush period, but was part of the silver riches in Nevada known at the Comstock Lode. Eventually he settled in San Francisco, married a young school teacher, and had one son.

Randolph William Hearst was definitely born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Daddy acquired The Daily Examiner as part of a debt collection, and this gave William Hearst his first experience as a newspaper person. William did build his own empire, but had to wait until his father died to begin building his dream castle on land that his daddy acquired years earlier. At age 57, William began working with Julia Morgan to put his ideas into place. Together they spent over twenty-seven years perfecting the Hearst Castle and according to legend; it was never completed because Hearst kept changing his mind. Total cost: ten million dollars.