The father of one of my friends used to be one of the richest 10 people in the world. Then all those Waltons and techies knocked him a little bit.
One of my favorite profs in college made it big with a bunch of patents he held. He taught in a building that was named after him. 
We took the final exam on his yacht.
A friend of mine’s dad owns a very successful chain of car dealerships. She has everything she could ever want and really doesn’t work or anything. He has a private jet, they go to NYC for shopping sprees and such. She has several pairs of Manolo Blahnik’s, etc., etc. Judging from how she lives, I imagine her parents live rather extravagantly.
And I know a guy who won the Powerball to the tune of $42 mil., and he was already pretty wealthy prior to that.