Walter Annenberg

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Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 to October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and diplomat.

Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included the ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, and the Daily Racing Form. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Fortune, A+ Magazine, Essence, The Atlantic Monthly, and Seventeen, Inc.

He was appointed by President Richard Nixon as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he served from 1969 to 1974. Annenberg was born in Milwaukee and raised in New York.

He attended the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school, but he dropped out to pursue stock trading.

Moses Annenberg, his father, was found guilty of tax avoidance and sentenced to two years in jail.

Annenberg took over the Inquirer during that period and after his father's death in 1942, increasing its fame and mine.

He built up his family's magazine business with a lot of success, expanding it to television and television. During his time as President of the United States, he served as a diplomat in the United States. He began a close relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and other royal associates.

He went on to be lauded for his dedicated work ethic, his wife's lavish entertaining, and personal contributions to promote patriotic British causes, such as the restoration of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, after initial missteps.

Winfield House, the American ambassador's residence, was also paid for the restoration of the building. Annenberg became one of the country's most influential philanthropists in his later years.

He founded the Annenberg Foundation in 1988 and gave over $2 billion to educational institutions and art galleries, including both the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles.

He entertained royalty, presidents, and other celebrities at his 220-acre home near Palm Springs, California; now a museum and retreat center dedicated to furthering Annenberg's history.

Early life

Walter Annenberg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 13, 1908. He was the only son of Sadie Cecelia (née Friedman, 1879–1965) and Moses Annenberg, who founded the Daily Racing Form and bought The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. Annenberg had been a stutterer from childhood.

He had seven sisters: Diana Annenberg (1901-1905), Esther Annenberg Hooker (1904–1992), Enid Annenberg Bonsinger Haupt (1906–2005), and Harriet Beatrice Aronson (1914–1969).

The Annenberg family moved to Long Island, New York, in 1920, and Walter attended the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, graduating in 1927. He dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, but not without obtaining a college degree. He was a member of Zeta Beta Tau, a traditionally Jewish fraternity, while attending college.

Annenberg was particularly affected by tax evasion allegations and other scandals surrounding his father in the 1930s. A large portion of his adult life was dedicated to rebuilding the family's name by philanthropy and public service.

Philanthropy and later life

Annenberg, a young businessman, was deeply involved in public service, even though she was active in the field of public service. He was one of Eisenhower Fellowship's founding trustees in 1953. Annenberg was named ambassador to the Court of St James' in the United Kingdom after Richard M. Nixon was elected president. Annenberg sold The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, which he bought in 1957, to Knight Newspapers in 1969, which was under pressure after the Shapp scandal. He became a popular ambassador in the United Kingdom after being named an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple on November 26, 1969, and an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1976.

Annenberg lived a luxurious lifestyle. President Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth II, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Charles, Prince of Wales, and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi all attended gatherings in Rancho Mirage, California (near Palm Springs). President Reagan introduced President Reagan to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the Reagans regularly celebrated New Year's Eve with the Annenbergs. In early 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Leonore Annenberg as the State Department's Chief of Protocol. Sunnylands is a private property in the northwest corner of Frank Sinatra Drive and Bob Hope Drive, and guarded on a 650-acre (2.6 km2) parcel surrounded by a stucco wall; the property also includes a golf course. Celebrities continue to use the estate for meetings and retreats.

Annenberg founded the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He gave The Peddie School a 100 million dollar check in 1993, the first gift to a school when accounting for inflation. Annenberg served on the advisory board of U.S. English (organisation), an organization that promotes the use of English as the official language of the United States. He became a promoter of public television, receiving many accolades, including the 1985 President's Medal of Freedom, the 1988 Eisenhower Medal for Humanity, and Service, as a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.

Annenberg established the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower, California, in the early 1980s. He founded the Annenberg Fellowship to Eton College, a one-year fellowship for one US graduating college senior (chosen from a rotating list of universities including Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and others) to spend a year teaching and serving as a cultural ambassador to the renowned British boys' college in the mid-1980s. He founded the Annenberg Foundation in 1989, and 1993, the biggest single gift ever made to American public education. He and his partner Leonore were both named National Medal of Arts in 1993. In 1990, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1988, he sold Triangle Publications (TV Guide, Daily Racing Form, and a few other journals) to Australian publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch, who announced that his life would be dedicated to philanthropy.

Annenberg is estimated that he raised over $2 billion over his lifetime. "Education... holds civilization together," he once said. Many school buildings, libraries, theaters, hospitals, and museums throughout the United States now bear his name. His collection of French impressionist artwork was auctioned at about US$1 billion in 1991 and was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City after his death in 2002. He gave the United Negro College Fund, the most significant amount to the charity ever donated. He was also a member of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University, assisting in the raising of funds for the institute's building and library.

In 1983, Annenberg was named the "Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia" and in 1992, she was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers of Fame.

In 1995, he was given the S. Roger Horchow Award for the Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, one of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service given out each year by the American Institute for Public Service.

The Annenberg Space for Photography, devoted to both digital images and print photography, was opened by the Annenberg Foundation and its trustees in Los Angeles in 2009. The first exhibition on view included works by John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Douglas Kirkland, Douglas Kirkland, Julius Shulman, Lauren Greenfield, and Carolyn Cole.

Personal life

Bernice Veronica Dunkelman married Annenberg in 1939. Bernice was born in a Jewish family in Canada, the daughter of Canadian businessman David Dunkelman who was known for making low-cost suits and selling them at a single price of $14 at his chain of 65 grocery stores. They divorced in 1950 after eleven years together. Dunkelman and Annenberg had two children when married: Wallis, the daughter, and Roger. Roger died by suicide in 1962; Harvard University, where Roger was a student at the time, now has a Roger Annenberg Hall named in his honor.

Annenberg married Leonore "Lee" Cohn in 1951. Lee was a niece of Harry Cohn, the maker and president of Columbia Pictures. Despite her Jewish origins, she was raised as a Christian Scientist by her uncle's wife. Despite being born to Jewish families, the Annenbergs were not Judaism practitioners; they celebrated Easter and Christmas with family and friends.

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Business career

Annenberg took over the family business after his father's death in 1942, bringing success out of others that had failed. He bought more print media, as well as radio and television stations, resulting in a massive success. One of his most notable accomplishments was the launch of TV Guide in 1952, which he started against his financial advisors' recommendations. He also created Seventeen magazine. TV Guide was earning thousands from $600,000 to $1,000,000 per week during the 1970s.

Although Annenberg's publishing empire was not profitable, he was not afraid to use it for his political ends. In 1949, The Philadelphia Inquirer, one of his books, was instrumental in ridding Philadelphia of its largely corrupt city government. Following World War II and the 1950s, it ran for the Marshall Plan and condemned McCarthyism.

Annenberg's 1966 Inquirer cast doubt on Democrat Milton Shapp's potential for governor of Pennsylvania. Shapp was highly critical of the pending merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad with the New York Central Railroad and he was urging the US Interstate Commerce Commission to prohibit it from happening. Annenberg, Pennsylvania Railroad's largest individual stockholder, wanted to see the merger succeed (which it did), but Shapp's opposition was overwhelming. When a reporter from Inquirer asked Shapp if he had ever been a patient in a mental hospital, he asked him if he had ever been a patient in a mental hospital. Shapp simply said, "no" when he's never been in one. "Shapp Denies Mental Institution Stay" was a headline on Inquirer's front page the next day. Shapp and others have attributed their defeat of the election to Annenberg's journal.

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