The multi-millionaire who gave it all away

BIOGRAPHY/REAL LIFE

Belfast Telegraph

IN 1988, Forbes Magazine hailed Chuck Feeney as the 23rd richest American alive. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to a blue-collar Irish American family during the Depression, Feeney had served in the Korean War and made a fortune as the co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers, the world's largest duty-free retail chain. But secretly, Feeney had already transferred all his wealth to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies. Only in 1997 was he outed as one of the greatest and most mysterious US philanthropists in modern times. Conor O'Clery's The Billionaire Who Wasn't (Short Books, £12.99) is the fascinating life story of what happens to a man and his family when they find wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Wonderfully uplifting, too.