Billionaire philanthropist Chuck Feeney, who gave millions to Queensland, dies, age 92

Billionaire philanthropist Chuck Feeney, who fell in love with Queensland and gave away hundreds of millions of dollars to research institutions, is being remembered as a giant following his death at age 92.

Billionaire Philanthropist, Chuck Feeney, pictured in 2012.

Billionaire philanthropist Charles Feeney – who donated more than $350m to Queensland and helped fund some of the state’s most revered research institutions – has died.

Named a Queensland Great in 2019, Mr Feeney died in San Francisco aged 92.

The US philanthropist, who accumulated most of his wealth through the establishment of duty-free shops at airports around the globe, gave Queensland the “lion’s share” of the $549m he donated to Australian research institutions.

In 2009 Mr Feeney gifted a record $27.5m to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research through his Atlantic Philanthropies fund and helped develop QUT’s Garden’s Point science and technology precinct.

Philanthropist Chuck Feeney with then-Premier Peter Beattie at the opening of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnolocy at Queensland University: PicGlenn/Barnes

The US billionaire, who fell in love with Queensland, also funded the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Queensland Brain Institute, the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Translational Research Institute.

Former QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake, who considered Feeney a friend, declared him a giant who would be missed

“His philosophy was giving while living,” Prof Coaldrake said.

“He got to know people … he got to know places and he liked Queensland.

“His passing is a real milestone because no one has funded Australian higher education and research like Chuck Feeney funded it.

“It was a great honour to know him.”

Despite the wealth, Mr Feeney did not use a briefcase or own a vehicle and continued to fly economy around the world.

Prof Coaldrake said the drive of Mr Feeney to fund science and innovation in Australia came at a pivotal time for this state.

“Queensland was repositioning itself as a Smart State, and he really liked that idea,” Prof Coaldrake said.

Former Premier Peter Beattie offered his condolences to Mr Feeney’s family and recalled the “very important partnership” the pair shared to transform the state.

“We’ve ended up with a nice number of world-leading research institutes and we needed a partner like Chuck to deliver that with us,” Mr Beattie said.

“He was a good guy to deal with, he got the importance of innovation

“What Smart State was doing with Chuck Feeney is leading Australia.”

Mr Beattie said the “very smart … and very selfless man” significantly contributed to Queensland.

“It’s rare to find someone who not only gives their money away to improve the lot of human kind, he wanted to leave a better world than the one he found,” he said.

He was named a Queensland Great by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2019.

In 1982 Mr Feeney founded The Atlantic Philanthropies, which operated anonymously for more than 15 years and donated about $10.9bn to health, education, science and other social causes, she noted.