He was one of the fortunate few who was able to amass fortune before
deciding to live a simple life and eventually give away everything he
has.
A significant number of individuals become extremely wealthy, but not many
are as fortunate as Charles Francis Feeney, who ultimately donated all of
his life's earnings. According to The New York Times, Feeney, who founded
duty-free stores all over the world and was an expert investor in tech
start-ups, died away on October 9, 2023, at the age of 92. But before he
passed away quietly in his San Francisco home, he gave away all $8 billion
of his fortune to charitable organizations.
The revelation was initially announced to the public on the website of
Feeney's foundation group, the Atlantic Philanthropies, which was founded
and has been sponsored by Feeney since the early 1980s. Even though he was
extremely wealthy, Feeney spent his final days in a small rental unit. When
Feeney gave $7 million to Cornell University, his alma school, in 2016, it
made headlines. For the student's community service project, it was. By
making this contribution, Feeney fulfilled his promise to donate all of his
riches before passing away and formally closed the accounts of Atlantic
Philanthropies.
The publication claims that the former millionaire only kept $2 million for
himself after leading a modest life for 60 years as he labored to grow his
company. "Chuck Feeney is an incredible inspiration and the epitome of
giving while you are still alive," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stated to
Forbes in 2012. In 2014, Feeney received a Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement
Award from Warren Buffett, who described him as "my hero and Bill Gates's
hero—he should be everybody's hero," according to Forbes. In contrast to
other donors, Feeney made the decision to give money in secret to a variety
of organizations, including human rights organizations, colleges, and
hospitals.
Among the places he worked to better people's lives via philanthropy were
the US, Vietnam, South Africa, Australia, Israel, and Jordan. He used to
travel to Northern Ireland often for charitable work, and since he was
Irish-American, he was more forthcoming about it. In 2007, he received an
invitation to participate with the presidents of the United States, Britain,
and Ireland at the start of a government that shared power in Belfast. He
used to give cashier's checks to institutions for the majority of his gifts,
and the recipients would be told that the giver was an anonymous, kind
individual.
Being reared in a working-class family that suffered throughout the Great
Depression, Feeney had a challenging upbringing. After serving in the Air
Force, he studied hotel management and started working in duty-free retail.
He had put around $35 million into start-ups in the software industry,
retail stores, property transactions, hotels, and apparel by the 1980s. But
his comfortable existence was not actually providing him with any peace of
mind. In his biography of Mr. Feeney, "The Billionaire Who Wasn't," Conor
O'Clery said, "He was beginning to have doubts about his right to have so
much money."
Feeney abandoned his opulent way of life and began to live a modest
existence. "All Feeney's instincts, instilled in him by the example of his
parents, by the sharing culture of his blue-collar upbringing in New Jersey,
by his desire not to distance himself from his boyhood neighbors and
friends, and by his own innate kindness and concern for others, undoubtedly
shaped his decision," O'Clery continued.
Finally, in 1997, Feeney and a partner sold their stake in Duty-Free
Shoppers to Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, revealing his pseudonym as a
humanitarian gesture. According to court documents, his $1.5 billion stake
belongs to a Bermuda-based benefactor who has been giving out money in
secret for the last fifteen years. In reality, it was Feeney. He is the kind
of guy that the world will never forget, nor the charity with which he
helped people in need during his lifetime.