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Media mogul gives
away millions
Frank
Batten Sr. is still one of Virginia’s richest residents
— but a little less so. The 76-year-old Batten,
former leader of Norfolk’s Landmark Communications,
last month gave more than $170 million to seven schools
and educational institutions.
Batten
says he’d planned to include the gifts in his will
but then decided not to wait. The schools are already
under money pressure and needed help now, he told The
Virginian-Pilot newspaper. “Why should I wait until
I die?” he said.
Three
recipients are in Virginia: $32 million to Old Dominion
University in Norfolk, $20 million to the Norfolk Foundation
to create the Batten Educational Achievement Fund, and
$11.2 million to Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk.
Batten also gave $32 million to the Harvard Business
School in Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1952.
More donation announcements are expected.
The
donations come in the form of stocks Batten got in the
mid-1980s from the sale of TeleCable, a cable television
division of Landmark. Forbes magazine estimates his
current wealth at $1.1 billion and ranks him the 386th
richest person in the world.
Batten
became publisher of The Virginian-Pilot in 1954 at age
27. He later took over Landmark and expanded it; the
company also owns The Roanoke Times and other newspapers
as well as two TV stations and The Weather Channel.
Batten turned over control of Landmark to son Frank
Jr. in 1988, though he’s still chairman of the
executive committee of the board of directors.
Virginia
Business - April 2003
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