In the United States, billionaire and philanthropist Chuck Feeney, the creator of the Duty Free Shoppers chain of duty-free shops at airports, died at the age of 93, reported Mail.ru.
Chuck Feeney was also known for giving away almost all of his capital to charity, leaving only 2 million for himself.
In 1988, Feeney was included for the first time in the list of the richest people according to Forbes magazine; already at that time his fortune was equal to 1,3 billion USD.
The billionaire began giving money to charity even then, although he gained fame as a philanthropist only in 1997, when he and his partner sold shares in Duty Free Shoppers to Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
Super-wealth, it turned out, did not appeal to Feeney.He became the founder of the “Giving While Living” movement, the goal of which was to donate one’s funds during one’s lifetime, and not after death according to a will.
Feeney's example inspired Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who launched the Giving Pledge in 2010, calling on ultra-rich people to give up to half of their wealth to charity during their lifetime.
Unlike most billionaires, Feeney donated his capital anonymously. His money was spent on bringing peace to Northern Ireland, building a technology campus at Cornell University, modernizing the health care system in Vietnam and fighting for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States.
In the last years of his life, Chuck Feeney gave up most of the things that make up the billionaire lifestyle: he did not have a home or a personal car, lived in a rented apartment and took the bus, wore a 10 USD watch and flew only economy class.
After the divorce, he left all seven houses that he then had to his first wife and five daughters from his first marriage.