Chuck Feeney'S Legacy Is a Lesson for America'S Billionaires

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Chuck Feeney is "my hero and Bill Gates' hero," Warren Buffett once said.

"He should be everybody's hero."

Mother Jones calls the billionaire "the James Bond of philanthropy."

The 92-year-old Feeney, who died Monday, was already a billionaire when he pledged in 2016 to give away most of his $8.6 billion fortune, but by the time the Giving Pledge was announced, he was no longer a billionaire.

Instead, he had given away most of his money over the past three decades, keeping about $25 of it for himself and his second wife to live on in their old age.

The New York Times reports Feeney's giving streak was the second-longest in the history of the Giving Pledge, which was started by Buffett and the Gateses in 2010.

The Giving Pledge encourages billionaires to give away a majority of their wealth.

Feeney's giving streak started in the early 1980s, when he and a friend invented the duty-free industry and made hundreds of millions of dollars a year selling tax-free liquor to US troops overseas.

After that, he gave away most of his money over the next three decades, keeping most of it for himself and his second wife.

He once said that for every $100,000 he gave away, he kept

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