Jack Lupton
Chattanooga attorneys Joel W. Richardson and David Gonzenbach were chosen by Coca-Cola bottling heir Jack Lupton to administer his huge estate.
The will, filed in the probate section of Hamilton County Chancery Court, also names Mr. Lupton's widow, Alice Probasco Lupton, as an executor. However, she declined to serve.
It specifies that charitable pledges made by Mr. Lupton be paid off, including those to UTC, Baylor School, the Boys and Girls Club of Chattanooga, Golf House of Tennessee and the Tennessee Aquarium Foundation. In his fourth and final codicil on April 13, 2007, Mr. Lupton said he had paid $1 million of a $2 million pledge to Baylor, $666,666 of a $1 million gift to the Boys and Girls Club, $1 million of a $1.5 million pledge to Golf House Tennessee and a portion of $250,000 pledged to the Aquarium. All of those pledges have apparently since been paid in full except the Aquarium since only the Aquarium Foundation is the only one listed as a beneficiary.
The will says the only charitable pledges to be honored by Mr. Lupton through his estate are those in which it was specified that the balance would come from the estate.
In the second codicil to his will executed in 2001, Mr. Lupton said UTC was to receive from his estate the remainder of what he still owed on a $25 million pledge. Apparently, that has also been paid since UTC is not listed as a beneficiary.
The only other beneficiary other than the Aquarium and the Lupton family was Debra A. Fisher. In his third codicil in 2004, Mr. Lupton said she would be forgiven the remainder of a debt to him. At the time of the codicil she owed $120,761.58 on a $130,555.67 note.
The value of the estate was put at "in excess of $1 million." The Lupton family's JTL bottling empire was sold to the Coca-Cola Company in 1986 for $1.2 billion.
Mr. Lupton left his wife a bequest of $20 million.
He said a trust that was set up for him by his parents, Cartter and Margaret Rawlings Lupton, would continue in effect for his beneficiaries.
They include his wife as well as his son, T. Cartter Lupton II of Sullivan's Island, S.C., and daughters Alice Lupton Smith of Lookout Mountain, Katherine Lupton Juett of Dallas and Margaret Lupton Gerber of Memphis.
The trust is set up "in such manner as to satisfy their financial needs in view of their financial situation."
Mr. Lupton left his jewelry, clothing, sports equipment and personal effects to his son.
He left his home and 50-acre property in Jackson County, N.C., and two beach homes at Hobe Sound, Fla., to his wife.
The will says he did not own any real estate in Tennessee. Mr. Lupton died May 16 at the age of 83 at Stonedge Point, Lookout Mountain, Tn.