Walter H. Annenberg, the publishing executive who gave more than $2-billion to charity, died today of pneumonia. He was 94.
While Mr. Annenberg told The Chronicle in 1994 that he intended to give away all of the assets of his foundation before his death lest they be used in ways he had not intended, he did not manage to do so. The assets of his foundation stand at $2.6-billion.
"He proved to be a businessman of such skill that he increased the value of his foundation even as he tried to give it away," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the spokeswoman for the Annenberg Foundation.
Foundation officials said it was too early to know whether Mr. Annenberg's will contains more money for the foundation. In 1991, he bequeathed his substantial collection of 19th- and early-20th-century works of art -- mainly Impressionist and post-Impressionist pieces -- to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. While the Metropolitan has been housing the collection for part of the year, it will now become a permanent part of its display. Foundation officials declined to comment on the value of the collection, but a Japanese collector once offered $1-billion for it.
Mr. Annenberg's wife, Leonore, who has served as president of the foundation for a number of years, will take over the chairmanship. Mr. Annenberg's daughter, Wallis, his only living child, is the foundation's vice-president. Plans currently are for the two to continue to lead the foundation, but it is unclear right now if they will change the philanthropy's focus on supporting education, culture, and health causes. "In general they will continue with some of the substantial work that Ambassador Annenberg began, but I suspect that over time they will carry out projects that are of special interest to them," said Gail Levin, the foundation's executive director. She declined to say what those interests might be.
Mr. Annenberg's best-known gift was his $500-million commitment, made in 1993, to improve the public schools. The donation produced more than $600-million in matching funds from foundations, businesses, governments and other sources, says a report released by the Annenberg Foundation in June.
"Mr. Annenberg had a fierce belief in the power of education to change lives and to make a democracy stronger," said Ms. Jamieson. "That is his legacy."