Tycoon Robert Wilson gives away $800 million fortune before jumping to death
Hedge fund multi-millionaire Robert W. Wilson, 87, leapt from the 16th floor of his luxury San Remo apartment building (pictured above), a prestigious address in New York’s Upper West Side which has been the residence of Steven Spielberg, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman, Bono, Steve Martin, Bruce Willis and Steve Jobs in the past.
According to the New York Police Department, he left a note at the scene. He had suffered from a stroke just a few months before.
“He always said he didn’t want to suffer and when the time came, he would be ready,” close friend Stephen Viscusi told the New York Post.
“His plan was to give all his money away. He told me recently, ‘I only have about $100 million to go.'”
He has since been praised as a “legend” by his peers, after pledging his entire worth to charity some years before he ended his life.
He gave the last $100 million of his money to not-for-profit environmental advocacy group the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
Fred Krupp, the president of the EDF, said of the group’s biggest benefactor: “Robert W. Wilson was a Wall Street legend who became a prominent philanthropist.
“Bob had a passion to get things done in the world. Widely read and blessed with a keen intellect, he had the ability to predict where the world was going, a talent that informed his investments and, in later years, his philanthropy.”