Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: John Paul Getty Jr., Philanthropist | |
|
Author: London |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: April 18, 2003 12:13:17 EDT J. Paul Getty Jr., the reclusive American-born heir to the Getty Oil fortune who made Britain his home and beneficiary, died there today at the age of 70. He was admitted to the private London Clinic on Monday and had been undergoing treatment for a recurrent chest infection, The Associated Press reported. In his younger years, Mr. Getty, a playboy whose wealth derived from the oil exploration business of his father, J. Paul Getty, enjoyed the hippie life in Rome, indulging in drugs and wild parties. But after the death of his second wife, he moved to Britain and established a reputation as a generous benefactor of causes large and small, donating more than $1 billion in all. He established residence in Britain a quarter-century ago, and was made a knight in 1986. An Anglophile to the core, he donated more than $200 million to a host of charities and institutions, including the National Gallery of Britain. His gifts could be small and anonymous or large enough to surprise the art world. He spent a considerable amount to keep the gems of England's patrimony from being sold to foreign buyers, and smaller sums to provide a concert artist with a grand piano or save a family of seals marooned in a storm. His philanthropy could be quirky and aimed at controversial causes. When a miners' strike battered the British economy in the mid-1980's, he donated money to keep their families from going hungry in the dead of winter. After that gesture, Mr. Getty, a man who seldom spoke in public, pronounced himself "privileged to be the heir to huge wealth." He regarded himself, he said, "as custodian of that money for the benefit of people who need it more than I do." By an act of Queen Elizabeth, his adopted country rewarded his gifts to charity with an honorary knighthood in 1986. Still, because he was not a British subject, he was not officially known as Sir Paul until he changed his citizenship in 1997. He was invested with the full honors of knighthood a year later. John Paul Getty Jr. was born on Sept. 7, 1932, the third of five sons of J. Paul Getty. His father, known as Oklahoma Crude, was a founder of Standard Oil and creator of the Getty Oil fortune. His $6 billion made him one of the world's richest men at the time. The younger Mr. Getty spent time at the University of San Francisco and in the United States Army before taking charge of Getty Oil Italia in Rome in 1959. He nominally kept that position until 1970, although he had informed his father years before that he cared little for the business. While in Rome, he took to a life of drugs and freewheeling parties, let his hair grow long and dressed in exotic garb. In 1966 he divorced his first wife, Gail Harris, with whom he had two daughters and two sons. His second wife, Talitha Pol, a model born in Bali and the mother of his third son, died of an accidental drug overdose in Rome in 1971. Her death was a turning point in Mr. Getty's life. He moved to London in 1972 and developed an interest in art while living reclusively for years in a well-guarded mansion on the bank of the Thames, in upper-class Chelsea. He married for a third time, in 1994, to Victoria Holdsworth, the daughter of a Royal Army commander, Gerald Holdsworth. In 1973, Mr. Getty's son John Paul III was abducted in Italy and held for five months. It was only after the kidnappers cut off part of his ear and sent it to the family that the boy's grandfather agreed to help pay a ransom reported at $3.4 million. In reference books, Mr. Getty listed his personal interests as watching cricket and old movies, and noted his love of books. He gave no interviews. Much of his present wealth came from a family trust created with the sale of Getty Oil to Texaco in 1984. It was mostly out of his control but was estimated at $2 billion. Estranged from his father, he inherited little directly from the paternal fortune. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
|
Forum timezone: GMT-5 VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB: Before posting please read our privacy policy. VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems. Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved. |