I came across this man and he changed alot about my perspective and how much not being materialistic can help you to be so free. I am talking about a man who has given out over $8 billion dollars away without revealing his true identity. Can you even believe that such people as golden hearted as Chuck Feeney exists?
You got it right that's his name, 'Chuck Feeney'. I bet you have never heard of that name before now. He might have even given more of his personal wealth away freely than the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos who recently broke the world's record for the highest earning in a day. Jeff had made $13billion USD in a day, you heard me right. But that's not my point here, my point is, it is not about how much you make because none of it would matter in your death bed, but it is about how much you were able to help that would count. Now, let's take a look at who Chuck Feeney really is.
I'll be giving you a run down of his early life and education. His full name is Francis Chuck Feeney, he is 89 years old and was born on April 23, 1931. It was recorded that Feeney came from a modest background of blue-collar and the time of his birth was around the great depression in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Feeney graduated from Elizabeth's St. Mary of the Assumption High School just like anyone else in 1949 but something was different, he had always had a charitable spirit to his education at St. Mary and has way back been credited for it. Along the line he had served as a U.S. 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. He later graduated from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
In 1996, Feeney and his partner sold their stakes in DFS to the French luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH). In 1982, Chuck Feeney had created The Atlantic Philanthropies, and in 1984, he secretly transferred his entire 38.75% stake in DFS, then it was worth about $500 million, to the foundation. Not even his business partners knew that he no longer personally owned any part of DFS. However, this led to his many years of anonymously giving away his wealth to help the needy through his charity foundation, Atlantic and he went as far as telling recipients not to reveal the sources of their donations having given away money in secret. This way of requiring recipients to not reveal the sources of their donations, kept his kindness anonymous. This way of giving has amounted to over the course of his life a great reputation and to date he has given away more than $8 billion. Isn't this the definition of a heart that is gold?
Chuck has married twice where his first wife Danielle is French and they happen to have four daughters, Juliette M. Feeney-Timsit, Caroleen A. Feeney, Diane V. Feeney, Leslie D. Feeney-Baily and one son, Patrick A. Feeney. However, his second wife Helga is his former secretary. In 2016, it was recorded that he had donated a whooping $250,000 which happened to still be the largest in the school's history from a single contributor back to his high school at St Mary's." Still as of 2016, he lived in a rented apartment in San Francisco.
When he was finally revealed as the man doing all that giving, it was unintentional and it was due to a law suit that involved him. Before this, he had given away so much fortune without anyone knowing.
He has received numerous awards and one of which he had received in 2010 was the Cornell Icon of Industry Award. Two years after that, all the universities of Ireland, North and South, jointly conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Laws on Feeney. Later that year, he also received Ireland's "Presidential Distinguished Service Award" for Irish Abroad and also was awarded the UCSF Medal for outstanding personal contributions to the University of California, San Francisco's health science mission. Even Bill Gates' best friend Warren Buffett said that Chuck Charles Feeney, is his hero, and this is how he puts it, "he's my hero and Bill Gates' hero. He should be everybody's hero." Finally, on the 160th Anniversary of Queensland being created, June 6 2019, Chuck Feeney was made an Honorary 'Queensland Great' for his contribution to Queensland. Don't you think he deserves some accolades?
