Moneys Not What He Wants

NEW YORK: There are no Feeney libraries, no Charles F. Feeney chair in international business at Harvard, not even a Feeney Foundation. Duty-free store magnate Charles Feeney has given away enough money to have all kinds of things named after him, but preferred to remain anonymous while contributing more than $600 million, usually in cashiers checks, to hospitals, universities and other organizations over the past 15 years. Only the recent sale of his business forced him to disclose his financial arrangements. Feeney, who had transferred all but $5 million of his $3.5 billion in assets to his Atlantic Foundation and Atlantic Trust, owns neither a house nor a car, and an associate said he always flies coach. As the largest single donor to Sinn Fein, Feeney, 65, who holds dual Irish and American citizenship, maintains that the more than $200,000 he gave the IRA wing was used to fund nonviolent functions. When asked why he decided to give his vast fortune away, Feeney said he had more than enough money, and a terrific amount of luck.