New York hedge-fund founder Robert W. Wilson has died at 87 in an apparent suicide.
He committed his life to giving the fortune he made from investing to charities.
According to Bloomberg News, Robert Wilson died on December 23rd after allegedly leaping from his 16th-floor residence at the San Remo apartment building on Manhattan’s Central Park West.
Robert Wilson donated $100 million each to the World Monuments Fund, the Nature Conservancy, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The World Monuments Fund works to preserve architectural and cultural heritage sites around the world.
One of Robert Wilson’s favorite initiatives was “saving” Catholic private schools, although he was an atheist.
He believed that private schools offered better educations than “the union-controlled inner-city schools.”
He also gave millions to the Archdiocese of New York over the years and became a good friend of Edward Cardinal Egan.
Police said the window to Roberts Wilson’s apartment was open and the death was not deemed suspicious.
Robert Wilson was married to his only wife, Marilyn, for about 35 years before they divorced. He has no children.