When his seven children were young, J. Don Brock bought them go-karts for Christmas. He gave them money, vacations. He and his first wife had portraits done of each child. As they grew older, he never hesitated to buy them a home or offer them a job at his multimillion-dollar asphalt equipment company.
The late Astec Industries CEO was a workaholic who traveled often on his private plane. Even on vacation, his family had to hide his briefcase to prevent him from working. But Sundays were for family. The business magnate would empty his mind, take his flock to New Hope Presbyterian Church, and tell his children he loved them.
This is the portrait that recent sworn depositions from five of Brock’s children paint of their father before he divorced his wife of 31 years. But after a custody battle in the 1990s and marriage to his longtime secretary, Sammye Brock, he changed into an easily manipulated person, the children said.
Brock never told five of his seven children they would be disinherited, according to the depositions. They didn’t know he’d written several wills over the years. But when he died in March 2015 from complications with mesothelioma cancer, the five children were surprised to receive copies of their father’s final will in the mail.
And even more surprised to see their names were missing.