Chuck Feeney, The Billionaire Who Gave Away His Wealth, Dies At 92

The Irish-American retail entrepreneur and philanthropist Charles Francis'Chuck' Feeney has died at his home in San Francisco. The billionaire, who made his fortune through duty-free shopping, dedicated the last decades of his life to giving away his fortune. He was 92.

Mr Feeney donated more than $8 million to educational, health, science and social causes through his private foundation the Atlantic Philanthropies.

On Monday, the foundation announced that Mr Feeney died peacefully in San Francisco.

The foundation said Mr Feeney was well known for his signature $15 watch, plastic bags for a briefcase and his preference for flying economy. "Flying in the front of the plane doesn't get you there any sooner," he said. In the last three decades, he did not own a car or home, preferring to stay in modest rented apartments.

Mr Feeney made his fortune after co-founding Duty-Free Shoppers, a chain of duty-free airport stores specializing in luxury goods, in 1960 with an undergraduate classmate from Cornell University, CNN reported. In 1966, he sold his shares in Duty-Free Shoppers. 

Mr Feeney was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1931, during the Great Depression, to Irish-American parents. He believed in "Giving While Living". "It's much more fun to give while you are alive than to give when you are dead," Mr Feeney said in a biography about him, "The Billionaire Who Wasn't."

According to the Atlantic Philanthropies website, In February 2011, Feeney became the 59th signatory of the Giving Pledge, an effort started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet. Though Feeney had committed to give away his fortune nearly three decades earlier, he supported the effort to encourage the wealthiest individuals and families in America to dedicate their wealth to philanthropic causes. "I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth," he wrote, "than to give while one is living - to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition."

The Atlantic Philanthropies was founded by entrepreneur Chuck Feeney, who decided in 1982 to devote his wealth to the service of humanity. The Atlantic Philanthropies, made grants totaling more than $8 billion, much of it anonymously, to causes on five continents.

He is survived by his wife, Helga and his five children and 16 grandchildren.