Billionaire businessman Chuck Feeney who co-founded Duty Free Shoppers chain then gave away his fortune to charity because ‘it’s more fun to give while you live’ dies at rented San Francisco Apartment aged 92
Chuck Feeney, the billionaire businessman who dreamed of giving away his entire fortune, has died at the age of 92 in his rented San Francisco apartment.
He died on Monday Atlantic Philanthropies, the foundation he founded in 1982. The foundation was liquidated in 2020 when all its funds were donated.
Feeney was a graduate of the Ivy League Cornell University who made his fortune when he founded Duty Free Shoppers, a chain of airport stores, with a colleague, Robert Miller.
He sold the company to LVMH in 1996. In retirement, Feeney adopted the ‘Giving While Living’ lifestyle and dedicated his life to contributing to causes in which he believed.
“It’s much nicer to give while you’re alive than to give when you’re dead,” he said in the biography, The Billionaire Who Wasn’t.
Chuck Feeney, pictured in 2007, was a participant in Bill and Melinda Gates’ Giving Pledge
Feeney pictured with his second wife, Helga Flaiz, who previously worked as his longtime assistant
For many years Feeney lived in this modest apartment in San Francisco
In its just under 30 years of existence, Atlantic Philanthropies has donated $8 billion to various causes around the world.
In Ireland, where Feeney’s ancestors came from, he gave to universities and hospitals, in Vietnam he spent money on infrastructure, he gave to human rights groups in Israel and Jordan while also paying for research into diseases, including cancer, in every continent.
According to his profile on the foundation’s website, Feeney lived in a rented apartment in San Francisco in the last years of his life, he did not own a car or any property. Forbes described his apartment as similar to a college dorm room.
During his philanthropic career, Feeney tried to remain anonymous and so recipients were largely paid in cashier’s checks. His foundation is incorporated in Bermuda, so he does not have to disclose donations for US tax requirements.
In 1984, he transferred his 35 percent stake in Duty Free Shoppers to Atlantic Philanthropies. In 1997 he sold his position in LVMH.
He was on record as saying that he financially provided for his five children after his death and kept about $2 million from his business career.
The former billionaire married twice in his life, first to French citizen Danielle Morali-Daninos, with whom he had five children, and later to his longtime assistant Helga Flaiz.
In addition to his wife and children, he is also survived by his 16 grandchildren.
Feeney fulfilled his four-decade mission to give away his $8 billion fortune to charity. He set aside $2 million for his and his wife’s retirement
Feeney raised billions creating Duty Free Shoppers with Robert Miller in 1960
Feeney was born hard into a working-class Irish-American family in northern New Jersey during the Great Depression that struggled to pay their $32-a-month mortgage.
After spending time in the Air Force stationed in Japan, Feeney became the first member of his family to go to college when he was accepted into Cornell, where he studied hotel management.
After graduation, he moved to Barcelona, where he started, he got the idea to sell goods, especially liquor, cigarettes and perfume, to Americans returning home.
After making a fortune through Duty Free Shoppers, Feeney invested shrewdly in Silicon Valley and at one point owned homes in New York, London, Paris, Aspen, Hawaii and along the French Riviera. At one point, he was the 24th richest person in America, according to Forbes.
A tribute to Feeney on the school’s website calls him Cornell’s “third founder” thanks to the massive financial contributions he’s made over the years, totaling $1 billion. Atlantic Philanthropies’ final donation was a $7 million gift to the school.
Since 2011, Feeney has been a member of Bill and Melinda Gates’ Giving Pledge, a group of billionaires who have pledged to give away most of their wealth before they die.
“I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one lives—to devote oneself personally to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition,” Feeney said at the time.
Talk to Forbes in 2012, Bill Gates called Feeney a “remarkable role model” and the “ultimate example of giving while living.”
Another philanthropic billionaire, Warren Buffet, called Feeney his ‘hero’, adding ‘he should be everybody’s hero.’
Feeney was prominent in his donation to Northern Ireland, donating both to the IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, and to their enemies the Ulster Defense Association, a move that helped pave the way for the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Feeney, whose ancestors hailed from Fermanagh, was among those present at the dawn of power-sharing government in Northern Ireland in 2007.
His donations to Ireland are thought to have been close to $2 billion.
Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams called Feeney a ‘good friend’ and an ‘extraordinary person’ in a statement following the news of his death.
Meanwhile, one tribute in Australia referred to him as ‘Queensland’s Godsend’ thanks to his nearly $600 million in donations to the region.
In the Billionaire Who Wasn’t, author Conor O’Clery wrote that during his business career, Feeney felt he doubted whether he had the ‘right to have so much money’.
‘When asked many years later if he was rich at this stage of his life, he replied: “How much is rich?” Above all expectations. Above all meritorious, so to speak. I just came to the conclusion with myself that money, buying boats and all the decorations didn’t appeal to me,’ added O’Clery.