William DeWitt, Jr.

DeWitt, the son of longtime Major League Baseball executive Bill DeWitt and Margaret H. DeWitt, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended St. Louis Country Day School. He was around baseball constantly as a child; his father owned the St. Louis Browns and Cincinnati Reds, and DeWitt served as a Browns batboy. On August 19, 1951, the little person Eddie Gaedel served as a pinch hitter at a Browns game, wearing DeWitt's jersey to the plate. He earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University in economics in 1963 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1965.

DeWitt was part of an investment group led by Francis L. Dale that purchased the Cincinnati Reds for $8 million from his father, Bill Sr., on December 5, 1966.

DeWitt joined Cincinnati investment firm Gradison & Co. in 1974. In 1979, along with Mercer Reynolds, he founded the investment firm Reynolds, DeWitt & Co. The firm owns 63 Arby's franchises, whose value has been estimated at $50.4 million and is an investor in Cincinnati-based U.S. Playing Card Company, with an estimated value of about $120 million. It also holds a $40 million stake in Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky. DeWitt is also involved with DeWitt Capital Group, a private equity firm registered in 2012. DeWitt has been part owner of the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles.

In 1984, one of DeWitt's business ventures, the oil company Spectrum 7, bought George W. Bush's Arbusto Energy, which, in turn, merged with Harken Energy in 1986. When Eddie Chiles prepared to sell the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989, DeWitt and Bush gathered investors to buy the team.

DeWitt has also held shares in the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals and the former Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association.

DeWitt was part owner of the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979, when 11 people were killed prior to a concert by The Who.

DeWitt and his wife, Katharine "Kathy" Cramer DeWitt, live in Indian Hill, Ohio. They have four children, Katie, Bill, Andrew, and Margot and twelve grandchildren. Bill DeWitt III is the president of the Cardinals. Andrew E. DeWitt is the founder and CEO of Dewey's Pizza.

In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed DeWitt to be on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and tapped his wife, Kathy, to serve on the National Endowment for the Arts.