The Feeney Factor

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Editorial / Periscope - Niall O'Dowd

The Feeney Factor

September 27, 2007

By NiallO’Dowd

THEY came to honor Charlie Feeney on Monday night at the Mutual of America building on Park Avenue. The busloads from New Jersey pulled up opposite the Waldorf-Astoria at around 6 p.m., and over a hundred or so piled out to pay homage to a hometown lad. They were family and friends who knew Feeney from the days back in the 1930s when he was just another neighborhood kid planning to make it big in the world.

This was their night, an opportunity to honor a hometown hero on the biggest stage of all in Manhattan. So anxious were they to make it on time that they even managed to get a police escort from Jersey to make sure they got there.

Feeney’s first girlfriend was there, a charming lady who lamented that she was “still working” and should have never broken it off with the man who made billions. She said he had a hole in his shoe and didn’t dress all that nice either back then.

The Fitzpatrick clan was there, Feeney’s sister and brother-in-law, nephews, nieces, grandnephews and nieces, all celebrating Uncle Charlie and the big night in the city.

The Jersey clans were mixing with the publisher gents, media and book agents who have attended more book launchings than hot dinners. This one was very different, however.

The man on the piano played the old Irish songs, and many sang along. The memories and the good times flowed while outside Park Avenue resembled an armed camp as a host of international politicians came to play on the UN stage.

No matter what those politicians contribute to mankind, it is hardly likely to match what the Jersey kid has done for his fellow man.

Known to the world as Chuck Feeney, he’s still Charlie to those who remember him before he became one of the most famous anonymous men in history.

For decades Charlie made billions in the duty free business and other ventures, and then gave it all away secretly through his Atlantic Philanthropies foundation.

He has $4 billion more to give and expects it will all be donated sometime in the next decade. He’s given a billion to Ireland alone, to universities, medical centers and worthy charities. He is a powerful force in Northern Ireland through his work on the peace process.

He’s the subject of a book now, The Billionaire Who Wasn’t, the story of one of the greatest philanthropists in American history. The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times were at the party to record one of Feeney’s very rare public appearances.

Author Conor O’Clery and his wife Zhana were over from Ireland to launch the book. Tom Moran, chairman of Mutual of America, had with his usual generosity thrown an Irish party to celebrate the occasion, and the Jersey boys and girls were out in force.

Charlie seemed at ease with it all, surprising perhaps for a man who has shunned the limelight all his life. In the warm glow of friends and family, however, he seemed as relaxed as ever we had seen him.

He perched on a chair in the back of the room signing books and greeting old friends. The years seemed to shed as he talked of the rare old times and the friends he knew.

When he finally got to speak in the boisterous room there was utter silence as if an oracle had arrived. His words were few and brief, thanking family and friends. The deeds were what mattered.

By evening’s end, as the buses prepared to roll back over the Hudson to Jersey, there was a palpable sense of an extraordinary night, of an event never to be duplicated. If all politics is local, so too is all fame and fortune.

For Charlie Feeney it was like coming home again.

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