
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990                   TAG: 9007030502
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ORMOND BEACH, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

CHAPMAN ROOT, ONE OF AMERICA'S RICHEST MEN, DIES

Chapman Shaw Root, one of America's wealthiest people and a former chairman of the country's largest Coca-Cola bottling company, died after a long illness. He was 65.

Root headed Associated Coca-Cola Bottlers from 1951 until 1982, when he sold his 57.5 percent interest to the parent company of Coca-Cola for $417.5 million. The company had plants in Pennsylvania, Florida, New York and New Jersey.

Last October, Forbes magazine listed Root as the 386th-richest person in America with a net worth of $290 million.

In 1966, he formed the Root Co. as parent company of his expanding financial holdings. At the time of his death, Root also owned such businesses as the Daytona Hilton and radio stations WNDB and WWLV.

A native of Terre Haute, Ind., Root was the grandson of Chapman J. Root, founder and owner of Root Glass Co., which designed and patented the distinctive wasp-waist Coca-Cola bottle in the early 1900s.

Chapman J. Root acquired several Coca-Cola bottling franchises, which later became the Terre Haute-based Associated Coca-Cola Bottlers.

He is survived by his wife, Susan Spear Root; a daughter; five sons; and 12 grandchildren.

by CNB