Everything about Walter Annenberg totally explained
Walter Hubert Annenberg (
March 13,
1908 –
October 1,
2002) was an
American billionaire
publisher,
philanthropist, and
diplomat.
Early life
Walter Annenberg was born in to a
Jewish family in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin on March 13, 1908. He was the son of Sarah and
Moses "Moe" Annenberg, who published
The Daily Racing Form and purchased
The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. The Annenberg family moved to
Long Island,
New York in 1920, and Walter attended high school at the
Peddie School in
Hightstown,
New Jersey, graduating in 1927., and campaigned for the
Marshall Plan following
World War II.
In 1966, Annenberg used the pages of
The Inquirer to cast doubt on the candidacy of Democrat
Milton Shapp, for governor of Pennsylvania. Shapp was highly critical of the proposed merger of the
Pennsylvania Railroad with the
New York Central and was pushing the U.S.
Interstate Commerce Commission to stop it. Walter Annenberg, who according to his
New York Times obituary, was the biggest individual stockholder of the Pennsylvania Railroad, wanted to see the merger go through and was frustrated with Shapp's opposition. During a press conference, an
Inquirer reporter asked Shapp if he'd ever been a patient in a mental hospital. Having never been in one, Shapp simply said "no". The next day, a five-column front page Inquirer headline read, “Shapp Denies Mental Institution Stay.” Shapp and others
have attributed his loss of the election to Annenberg's newspaper.
Annenberg established the
Annenberg Schools for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the
University of Southern California. He became a champion of
public television, acquiring many awards, including the
Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan and the Linus Pauling Medal for Humanitarianism. In 1989, he established the
Annenberg Foundation, and 1993, created the Annenberg Challenge, a
US$500 million, five-year reform effort and the largest single gift ever made to American public education.
He sold
TV Guide,
Seventeen, and a few other publications to
Australian publishing magnate
Rupert Murdoch in 1988 for US$3 billion, announcing that he'd devote the rest of his life to philanthropy.
During his lifetime, it's estimated that Annenberg donated over US$2 billion. "Education...", he once said, "holds civilization together". Many school buildings, libraries, theaters, hospitals, and museums across the United States now bear his name. His collection of French
impressionist art was valued at approximately US$1 billion in 1991 and was donated to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York City upon his passing in 2002. In 1990, he donated $50 million to the
United Negro College Fund which was the largest amount ever contributed to the organization.
Personal life
Annenberg's first marriage, to Veronica Dunkelman, ended in divorce in 1950 after eleven years together. While married Dunkelman and Annenberg had two children: a daughter, Wallis, and son, Roger. Roger committed
suicide in 1962; to commemorate his death,
Harvard University, where Roger was a student at the time, now has a Roger Annenberg Hall named in his honor. Annenberg's 1951 marriage to his second wife,
Leonore "Lee" Cohn Rosentiel, was, by all accounts, a lasting and fulfilling relationship. Lee was a niece of
Harry Cohn, founder and successful mogul of
Columbia Pictures.
Death
Annenberg died at his home in
Wynnewood,
Pennsylvania on
October 1,
2002 from complications dealing with
pneumonia; he was aged 94. He was survived by his wife Leonore, daughter Wallis, and two sisters,
Enid Haupt, and Evelyn Hall. Including those by his wife's daughters from her first marriage (Diane Deshong and Elizabeth Kabler), he left behind seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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