Timothy R. Busch is an American conservative Catholic attorney, businessman, and philanthropist from Orange County, California. [1] [2] [3]
Busch grew up in Clinton, Michigan as the second of six children in a devoutly Catholic family. [1] His father, Joe, founded and operated a chain of upscale supermarkets, Busch's Fresh Food Market. [1] He received his bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University and his J.D. degree from Wayne State University Law School. [1] In 1982, Busch moved to southern California. [1] He married his wife, Steph, in 1985. [1] he has a son, Garrett, and a daughter, Mackenzie. [4] Busch lives in Nellie Gail Ranch, Laguna Hills, and has a second home at the Reserve Country Club in Indian Wells, California. [4] [1] He is a devout Catholic and active in Legatus and a number of other Catholic organizations and charities. [1] [4]
Busch is the founder of the Busch Firm, a financial services company that specializes in high net-worth estate planning. [1] The Busch Firm also handles real estate and business transactions. [1] Busch also founded the Pacific Hospitality Group which owns and manages eight hotels in California. [1] As of 2019 [update] , Busch is the CEO. [1] Busch and his brothers own the supermarket chain founded by their father. [1]
In 2011, Busch joined the Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer to create the Magis Institute, an organization dedicated to exploring the intersection of faith and reason. [1] In 2011, he founded the Napa Institute with Spitzer in an effort to train Catholic leaders to defend the faith in an increasingly secular society. [1] The Napa Institute is known for its annual conferences at a California wine spa that aims to blend "conservative theology and libertarian economics, with an emphasis on apologetics, sexual ethics and countercultural anti-secularization", and has been linked to ultraconservative critics of Pope Francis. [5]
In 1992, Busch and his wife founded St. Anne's School in Laguna Niguel. [1] They also started JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano. [1] In 2016, Busch's charitable foundation, the Busch Family Foundation, gave $15 million to The Catholic University of America. [1] [6] Busch helped bring in an additional $32 million in gifts that were used in part to renovate Maloney Hall, and to turn it into a home for the renamed Tim and Steph Busch School of Business. [6] [7] [8] [9] [1] [10] The building has been described as "Harvard on the outside, Google on the inside", [8] as well as "one of the premier academic buildings in Washington, D.C. if not the country". [9] In 2016, Busch finished serving on the board of the university for 12 years. [1] [6] He also served on the board of visitors of the business school. [1]