biography
pronunciation:
[wiynberg]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1908–90)
|
| biography:
| Businessman and philanthropist, born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1912 he was brought to Baltimore, MD where his father already was operating an auto-repair shop. He left school at age 12 and worked in his father's shop. By his twenties he was investing in Baltimore real estate, using his profits to buy bus companies, and he made a major fortune when his Fifth Avenue Coach Line was bought by New York City (1962). From 1950 on he gradually shifted his business interests and residence to Hawaii, where he amassed more property, and permanently settled in Hawaii in 1968. In later years he also engaged in corporate buyouts. Known as a tempestuous, tough-talking, reclusive man, he shunned all the trappings of wealth - flying coach class and buying his clothes off the peg. At his death he left close to $1 billion to a charitable trust to benefit the poor. |
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