The Billionaire Who Wasn’t

Conor O'Clery tells the life of Chuck Feeney, born to a blue-collar Irish-American family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, during the Depression. After serving in the Korean War, Feeney made his fortune through Duty Free Shoppers, the largest duty-free retailer in the world, and by 1988 Forbes ranked him among the richest Americans. In secret, though, everything he had was already in the hands of his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, and his giving became public only when he sold his duty-free holdings in 1997. Frugal enough to fly economy and to own neither a house nor a car, Feeney cooperated on the biography to promote giving while living.

Moz founder Rand Fishkin called Chuck Feeney one of his personal heroes and said it is probably the book that has inspired him most in his professional career.