Complex sentence: We learn that Lay was the son of an impoverished Baptist minister who dreamed about being wealthy from a young age, growing up to earn a Ph.D in economics and becoming a prominent supporter of deregulation during the Reagan Administration.
Split into simpler sentences: We learn that Lay was the son of an impoverished Baptist minister who dreamed about being wealthy from a young age. During the 1980s, Lay became a prominent supporter of deregulation during the Reagan Administration.