H.F. Lenfest, former media mogul, philanthropist, dies

PHILADELPHIA— H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest, who made a $1 billion fortune in the cable industry and gave almost all of it away, supporting schools, museums, journalism and the arts in Philadelphia and beyond, died Sunday, a family spokesman said.

Gerry Lenfest was 88. He was taken Sunday from his Rittenhouse Square home to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of complications from chronic illness, said Fred Stein. Stein will handle a memorial service planned in Philadelphia in September.

“There is likely not an organization or charity in Philadelphia that didn’t benefit from the Lenfest family’s generosity in some way,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.

Lenfest and his wife, Marguerite, made about $1.2 billion when they sold Suburban Cable to Comcast Corp. in 2000. The Lenfests immediately set out to give away the fortune. By 2014, as he stepped in to help Philadelphia’s ailing newspapers, Gerry Lenfest estimated he had given away $1.1 billion.

“Money is a responsibility when you have that kind of wealth. I’ve tried to do right by it. Perhaps the greatest opportunity came with the ownership of these newspapers,” Lenfest said in 2016 when he donated the newspapers to a newly created nonprofit. “What would this city be without the Inquirer and Daily News?”

The Lenfests also gave to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and Lenfest’s alma maters: Mercersburg Academy, Washington and Lee University and Columbia University.