Charles Francis Feeney was an Irish-American businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune as a co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers Group, the travel retailer of luxury products based in Hong Kong.
17 Facts About Chuck Feeney
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Chuck Feeney was the founder of the Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world.
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Chuck Feeney gave away his fortune in secret for many years, choosing to be anonymous, and donating more than $8 billion in his lifetime.
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Chuck Feeney was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on April 23,1931, during the Great Depression, to Irish-American parents.
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Chuck Feeney's mother was a hospital nurse, and his father was an insurance underwriter.
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Chuck Feeney graduated from Elizabeth's St Mary of the Assumption High School in 1949 and later credited his charitable spirit to his education there.
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Chuck Feeney served as a US Air Force radio operator during the Korean War and began his career selling duty-free liquor to US naval personnel at Mediterranean ports in the 1950s.
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Chuck Feeney graduated from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in 1956.
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Chuck Feeney was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi and an honorary member of the Sphinx Head Society.
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Miller opposed the sale, and, before a presumptive lawsuit could reveal that Chuck Feeney's stake was owned not in fact by him but by the Atlantic Philanthropies, Chuck Feeney outed himself in a New York Times article.
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Chuck Feeney expanded Atlantic's assets with investments in Facebook, Priceline, E-Trade, Alibaba, and Legent.
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The largest single beneficiary of Chuck Feeney's giving was his alma mater Cornell University, which received nearly $1 billion in direct and Atlantic gifts, including a donation of $350 million enabling the creation of Cornell's New York City Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island.
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Chuck Feeney supported the modernization of public-health structures in Vietnam, AIDS clinics in South Africa, Operation Smile's free surgeries for children with cleft lips and palates, earthquake relief in Haiti, and the UCSF Medical Center at the University of California at San Francisco.
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In February 2011, Chuck Feeney became a signatory to The Giving Pledge.
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On September 14,2020, Chuck Feeney closed down the Atlantic Philanthropies after the non-profit accomplished its mission of giving away all of its money by 2020.
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On June 6,2019, which was the 160th anniversary of the establishment of the Australian state of Queensland, Chuck Feeney was made an Honorary Queensland Great for his contribution to the state.
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Chuck Feeney died in San Francisco on October 9,2023, aged 92.