October 17, 2002 | Read Time: 4 minutes
Walter H. Annenberg, who was estimated to be worth $4-billion when he died this month at age 94, left at least $1-billion to his foundation, and possibly much more. The infusion of money from his estate could make the foundation one of the wealthiest dozen philanthropies in the United States.
Mr. Annenberg divided his wealth, which includes a valuable art collection, among the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Annenberg Foundation, and his wife, Leonore, and other relatives, friends, and employees. Although the value of Mr. Annenberg’s estate has not yet been officially determined, Forbes magazine listed him as the 39th wealthiest American in its 2002 ranking.
Museum Beneficiary
Mr. Annenberg left his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to the foundation, preferably to be used as a museum.
In 1991, Mr. Annenberg announced that he was leaving 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 museum has been housing the collection for part of each year, the artworks will now become a permanent part of its display. Foundation officials declined to comment on the value of the 53 works, but a Japanese collector once offered $1-billion for them.
In his lifetime, Mr. Annenberg gave more than $2-billion to charity. He 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, but he did not accomplish that goal. The assets of the Annenberg Foundation, in St. Davids, Pa., stood at $2.6-billion before his death.
“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.
Mr. Annenberg, a former ambassador to Great Britain, was the founder of TV Guide and Seventeen magazines. He inherited the publishing business and sold it for $3-billion in 1988, to Rupert Murdoch. After that sale, Mr. Annenberg became more active as a philanthropist.
“If you have been fortunate economically in life, I think you have a very important obligation to share and support others less fortunate than you,” he told The Chronicle. “And if you don’t understand that, you’re a rather shabby citizen.”
Leadership Change
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 fund’s vice president. While plans currently are for the two to continue to lead the foundation, it is unclear if they will change the fund’s focus on improving communication through support of programs in education, culture, health, and civic and community life.
“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.
Mrs. Annenberg is a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a managing director of the Metropolitan Opera, in New York, among other affiliations.
Wallis Annenberg heads the Los Angeles office of the Annenberg Foundation, and her personal philanthropy is focused on culture and education in the Los Angeles area. She is a trustee of a number of groups, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Music Center of Los Angeles County, and the University of Southern California, her alma mater.
Mr. Annenberg’s best-known gift was his $500-million Annenberg Challenge, made in 1993, to improve public schools. The donation produced more than $600-million in matching funds from foundations, businesses, government, and other sources, says a report released by the Annenberg Foundation in June.
He long had an interest in education, with gifts including a $50-million challenge grant to the United Negro College Fund in 1991 and a $100-million donation in 1993 to the Peddie School, the New Jersey institution he attended. Last month, the foundation announced it would give $100-million each to the communication schools founded by Mr. Annenberg at the University of Pennsylvannia and the University of Southern California.
“He had a fierce belief in the power of education to transform lives and to make a democracy stronger,” said Ms. Jamieson. “That is his legacy.”
