ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: The New York Times
CHARLES FEENEY made billions with a string of duty-free airport shops. He has given away $600 million over the years; and until recently, he kept his identity a secret.
A self-made businessman from New Jersey has given away more than $600 million to hospitals, universities and other beneficiaries over the last 15 years - but most recipients never learned who their benefactor was.
The donor, Charles Feeney, who made his fortune with a string of duty-free airport shops, covered his tracks so well that business magazines for years have estimated his net worth in the billions, not realizing that he had transferred most of his assets to his two charitable foundations and is actually worth less than $5million.
``He doesn't own a house. He doesn't own a car. He flies economy. And I think his watch cost about $15,'' said Harvey Dale, a New York University tax law professor and president of Feeney's Atlantic Foundation, who has helped Feeney orchestrate his gifts since 1982.
Feeney agreed to discuss his gifts because the duty-free empire was sold this month to the company that makes Moet & Chandon Champagne, and a lawsuit over the sale would have revealed his anonymous donations.
Feeney - who has strong ties to Ireland and has made many gifts there, including personal donations to Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing - was matter-of-fact in describing why he had given away his fortune. ``I simply decided I had enough money,'' he said.
Feeney's foundations, like his Duty Free Shoppes chain, are based in Bermuda, thus avoiding the disclosure requirements of private foundations in the United States.
From the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York to Portland State University in Oregon, none of the American recipients of Feeney's largess knew who its benefactor was. Grants were paid by cashier's check to conceal the source.
Few of the recipients had ever even met Dale or Joel Fleishman, the president of Atlantic Philanthropic Services, which actually gave away the money on behalf of Feeney's two foundations, the Atlantic Foundation and the Atlantic Trust.
Dr. Robert Butler of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine said he met Feeney in 1990 while making a proposal for funding to an advisory board that reviewed grant proposals.
``I had no idea that he was the main supporter of what I call the Anonymous Foundation,'' Butler said, adding that the grant was made, starting the International Longevity Center at the New York Academy of Medicine. ``Anonymous giving, giving that is not dependent on ego, is just really rare.''
Feeney said that by giving anonymously, he could go about his life unhampered by pitches for donations.
In 1984, when Feeney gave his 38.75 percent interest in the Duty Free Shoppes chain to the two foundations, even his partner, Robert Miller, was not told. Proceeds from the sale of the chain earlier this month, along with his other business assets, a total of $3.5 billion, are owned by the foundations.
Feeney's charitable enterprise would rank as the nation's fourth-largest grant-making foundation if it were based in the United States, yet the two groups operate with tiny staffs, just 20 professionals in the United States and overseas.
Duty-Free Shoppes has sales of more than $3 billion annually, mostly in liquors and luxury goods, more than the combined sales of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman-Marcus.
The foundation's largest single grant was $30 million, according to Dale, who refused to identify the recipient on grounds that the information might discourage other donors from supporting it. ``One reason for keeping gifts anonymous is to avoid what we call this `crowding out' effect,'' Dale said.
One-fourth of Feeney's contributions have been made abroad, half of that in Ireland. The foundation also supports projects in South Africa, the former Soviet bloc, Eastern Europe, Israel and Jordan.
Feeney also said he had given substantial personal donations - not from the Atlantic foundations - in the last two years to the Washington office of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. Public records show that Feeney has contributed some $280,000 - making him the group's single largest American donor.
While Feeney acknowledged that some would criticize his support for a group linked to the IRA he said his gifts to Sinn Fein had been monitored to ensure that they supported only nonviolent activities.
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