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When Belgian brewer InBev completed its $52 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch by paying $70 a share to stockholders there were quite a few executives who reaped huge rewards.

The takeover marked the end of the line for many senior Anheuser-Busch executives and all but one of its directors. But all walked away with big payouts for their company stock.

A group of 17 top executives received more than $1 billion for their shares, and the brewery’s 12 directors other than Chief Executive August Busch IV surrendered their posts Nov. 18 with a combined $23 million in hand.

Director and former chief executive August Busch III led the payday, collecting $427.3 million for his 1.3 percent stake in the company. About half of that amount comes from stock he controlled directly and through stock options, while the other half he controlled indirectly as the beneficiary of a couple of family trusts, through a charitable trust and through his wife, Virginia.

Busch III, 70, has been a member of the board since 1963 and served as chairman from 1977 until his retirement Nov. 30, 2006. He ran the business as CEO from 1975 to 2002 before handing the reins to Patrick Stokes.

Stokes, the company’s chairman, walked away with $160.9 million. About $10.7 million of that is controlled through a family limited partnership and a trust. Stokes, 65, spent his career with Anheuser-Busch and rose through the ranks to become the president and CEO of the company from 2002 until his retirement on Nov. 30, 2006. During Anheuser-Busch’s 156-year run as an independent company, Stokes was the only person outside the Busch family to hold the top post.

CEO August Busch IV collected nearly $91.4 million through the InBev buyout. The Fourth, as he is called, grew up in the beer business like his father, Busch III. He began working full time for the brewery after graduating from Saint Louis University in 1987. He held jobs in packaging, shipping and brewing and eventually earned his brewmaster’s degree from Versuchs und Lehranstalt für Brauerei, an international brewing academy in Berlin, Germany.

Busch IV, 43, made his mark as vice president of marketing during the late 1990s and early 2000s before rising to president of the brewery in 2002 and ultimately CEO of parent company Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. in December 2006.

Keith Kasen, chairman and CEO of theme park subsidiary Busch Entertainment Corp., made $16.2 million. He oversaw the subsidiary’s headquarters relocation to Orlando, Fla., earlier this year and ran the company’s nine SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove, Sesame Place, Adventure Island, Water Country USA and Aquatica theme parks.

Michael Harding, president and CEO of Anheuser-Busch Packaging Group Inc., reaped $13.4 million.

Francine Katz, vice president of communications and consumer affairs, received $12.5 million. She has worked at Anheuser-Busch for two decades, leads a staff of 80 in corporate and public relations, and serves as the company’s lead spokeswoman. She was named one of the Business Journal’s Most Influential Business Women this year.