GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Jay Van Andel, the co-founder of Amway Corp. who helped parlay neighborhood soap sales into a billion-dollar business and later became a leading philanthropist for conservative causes, has died. He was 80.

Greg McNeilly, executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, said Tuesday that Van Andel had died, but did not give the cause of death. Van Andel had Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system that involves a degeneration of nerve cells in parts of the brain.

“We’re deeply saddened by the loss of a man of great integrity who has been a strong Republican supporter for a number of years,” said McNeilly, speaking on behalf of state GOP Chairwoman Betsy DeVos. DeVos is married to Dick DeVos, a former Amway official whose father, Richard DeVos, co-founded Amway with Van Andel.

Amway made its fortune by relying on a worldwide network of independent, mom-and-pop distributors to sell products ranging from furniture polish to burglar alarms, and to recruit other distributors.

The company now operates in more than 80 countries and territories around the world, with 13,000 employees and millions of distributors. Its parent company, the privately held Alticor Inc., had worldwide sales of $6.2 billion for the year ending Aug. 31, 2004, with Asia now its primary market.

Van Andel and DeVos started selling diet supplements in the 1950s and coined the name Amway, an abbreviation of “American Way,” in 1959, when they expanded into household cleaning products.

If Amway was co-founded in Van Andel’s basement, it was nurtured upstairs.

“Sometimes the dining room took on the character of an MBA classroom,” he wrote in his autobiography. “My son Dave told me not long ago that he learned more about business around the dinner table than from any other source – college business classes and personal involvement in the business included.”

Van Andel and his wife of more than 50 years, Betty, had four children, all of whom held executive positions with Amway – as did DeVos’ four children. Betty Van Andel died earlier this year.

Jay Van Andel resigned as chairman in 1995 and was succeeded in that post by his son, Steve. DeVos resigned as president following a heart attack in 1992 and was succeeded by his son, Dick. The founders’ sons shared the newly created office of chief executive of Amway.

The Federal Trade Commission charged in 1969 that the Ada-based company was an illegal pyramid, but ruled after a six-year investigation that it wasn’t.

The company also has been controversial because of its almost evangelical zeal in promoting free enterprise, and gained attention with DeVos’ and Van Andel’s high-profile participation in Republican politics.

Born June 3, 1924, in Grand Rapids, Van Andel attended Calvin College and Morningside College before going to Pratt Business School and Yale University’s Aviation Cadet School. He then served in the Army Air Corps and as a Reserve Officer.

Van Andel’s resume reflected his conservative business and social philosophies. He chaired the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and was a trustee of the Heritage Foundation, Hudson Institute, Hillsdale College and the Advisory Council for American Private Education.

The founders also became generous philanthropists, with their families giving a combined $95 million between 1990 and 1998 alone.

Much of Van Andel’s giving went toward Christian causes, including a creation research station in rural Arizona that sought to prove the world was made in a week.

Van Andel also reshaped his hometown of Grand Rapids over the years.

In 1978, Amway bought the 65-year-old Pantlind Hotel, restored it, added a 29-story tower and reopened it in 1981 as the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. A downtown arena that opened in 1996 was named for Van Andel after his foundation donated $11.5 million toward its $75 million cost. The Van Andel Museum Center was added later.

He also founded the nonprofit Van Andel Institute, comprising two facilities dedicated to medical research and the educational process, and was chairman of the Amway Environmental Foundation.

AP-ES-12-07-04 1428EST

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