Region is richer because of H.F. ‘Gerry’ Lenfest

H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest made a fortune in the cable television industry, and he decided to share his wealth.

Most of us spend our lives trying desperately to acquire wealth and possessions.

Some of us are more successful at it than others.

Not many of us then consider giving it all away.

Most of us are not H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest.

Lenfest made a fortune in the infant days of the cable television industry. Back in 2000, he sold his Suburban Cable company to Comcast for $1.2 billion.

But the Navy veteran and lawyer did not horde his money and withdraw to a life of privilege and luxury.

Instead, he decided to share his fortune. Which is a nice way of saying he gave it all away. To the tune of more than a billion dollars.

Actually, Lenfest “invested” his wealth. In you. In all of us. Lenfest specifically did not set up any sort of foundation or trust to protect his sizeable nest egg. Instead he put his money where so many of us only put our mouths.

It would be hard to find a crucial part of life in this region that has not been touched by the fingerprints of Gerry Lenfest.

Lenfest funneled money into the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, and Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

One of the city’s newest gems, the Museum of the American Revolution, likely would not exist were it not for Lenfest’s generosity.

Lenfest was also dedicated to the one of the backbones of our democratic society, a free and flourishing press.

The flourishing part has been a challenge in recent years, as the industry struggles mightily to cross the bridge from a print-centered world to an online environment.

Lenfest believed deeply in the bedrock mission of the fourth estate, as a watchdog on elected officials and conveyor of essential information, so deeply that he sunk a sizable chunk of his fortune into a partnership that eventually would acquire the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com.

He followed that up in 2016 with the next step in the process, setting up the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the non-profit entity that now owns the company.

Lenfest’s touch was not limited to the city.

Just outside West Chester, the Chester County seat where Lenfest’s Suburban Cable first gained a toe-hold back in the early ’80s, there lies a pristine 1,282-acre tract of splendid open space that has somehow defied the bulldozers that have developed so much of what was once a largely rural preserve.

The ChesLen Preserve, including hills, wooden glades and river views, sprawls across the Chester County landscape. It will remain a stunning slice of fast-disappearing peace and serenity due in no small part to the philanthropy of the man whose name now forms part of its title.

Back in the 1980s, Chester County had a big piece of land — and a big problem. They had acquired 500 acres across from what was then the Embreeville Center. It rambled along the Brandywine River. The county wanted to turn the property into a public park. Their problem was finding the proper access to the land.

That eventually brought them to Lenfest, who owned a large tract nearby.

Molly Morrison used to work for the county. Now she heads up Natural Lands, one of the nation’s premier conservancy groups.

When Morrison moved to Natural Lands, she says Lenfest approached her with an offer.

If she could convince the county to give up its 500 acres in Embreeville, he would combine it with his 582 acres in Unionville.

Not only that, but Lenfest wrote the check to endow the land as a conservation preserve for the public.

Today the spectacular series of trails, hills and dales, complete with a canoe launch, environmental education center and children’s environmental playground is visited by 50,000 people every year.

Both Gov. Tom Wolf and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney were quick to note the effect of Gerry Lenfest on Philadelphia and the region.

Kenney called him perhaps one of the city’s greatest citizens.

Lenfest used his wealth to literally reshape the region, revitalizing our cultural, educational and media worlds.

We’re all richer because of him.