Texas Billionaire And Politician, Ross Perot Dead At 89

The Texas billionaire and two-time presidential candidate H. Ross Perot died Tuesday at the age of 89. The news broke this morning that self-made Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot has passed away. His family made the announcement early Tuesday. Perot had been diagnosed with leukemia back in February and had been battling the disease ever since. Despite his medical diagnosis, Perot continued to go to work every day, even on his 89th birthday back in June.

Born in Texarkana, Perot served in the U.S. Navy before becoming a salesman for IBM. He opened his own data processing company in 1962 before selling it in the 1980s for over 2 billion dollars. Perot was also a big humanitarian and his son told the Dallas News "every day he came to work trying to figure out how he could help somebody."

In 1992, H. Ross Perot threw his name into the running for president of the United States against Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, receiving 19% of the vote. Many Republicans blamed Perot for Bush losing the election to Clinton that year.