Gerald Hatten Buss (January 27, 1933 – February 18, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, chemist, and philanthropist. He was the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning 10 league championships that were highlighted by the team's Showtime era during the 1980s. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. Buss owned other professional sports franchises in Southern California. Early life and business career Born in Salt Lake City, Buss was raised by his divorced mother, Jessie. His father, Lydus, was an accountant who went on to teach statistics at Berkeley. When he was nine years old, he moved with his mother to Los Angeles; they moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming, three years later when she remarried. Buss earned a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, graduating with a BS degree in two and a half years in 1953. He then returned to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he earned an MS and PhD in physical chemistry in 1957 at the age of 24. Buss started as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines (now the Mine Safety and Health Administration); he then briefly worked in the aerospace industry and was on the faculty of USC's chemistry department. Buss originally went to invest in real estate in order to provide an income so he could continue teaching. His first investment in the 1960s was $1,000 in a West Los Angeles apartment building. Finding great success in the real estate business, he, along with longtime business partner, Frank Mariani, formed real estate investment company Mariani-Buss Associates. In 1979, Buss purchased Pickfair, the Beverly Hills estate once owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks; he sold it in 1987. In 1974, Buss produced a movie named Black Eye starring former gridiron star Fred "the Hammer" Williamson. Buss was an owner of the Phoenix location of the Playboy Club. Sports team ownership Buss became an owner of the Los Angeles Strings in World Team Tennis. He purchased the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA along with the Los Angeles Kings hockey team of the NHL, The Forum (all for a then-record combined $67.5 million for those three properties), and a large ranch from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979, in a deal that also transferred ownership of the Chrysler Building. Buss later sold his controlling interest