H.F. Lenfest

H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest
Born	Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Alma mater	Washington and Lee University Columbia University
Occupation	Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest is a media entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Lenfest was born in Jacksonville, Florida, then later grew up in Scarsdale, New York and Hunterdon County, New Jersey. After attending Flemington High School, and graduating from Mercersburg Academy, Lenfest went on to receive his BA from Washington and Lee University in 1953 and his LLB from Columbia Law School in 1958. He served in the Navy between college and law school. Lenfest worked at the firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell before becoming, in 1965, associate counsel to Triangle Publications, Inc., the media company controlled by Walter Annenberg. In 1970, he was named head of the Communications Division at Triangle. He formed Lenfest Communications in 1974 and sold it to AT&T in 1999, who then sold it to Comcast in 2000 for $6.7 billion. Lenfest currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the TelVue Corporation. He is also the majority shareholder of this company.

Lenfest's wife, Marguerite B. Lenfest has also played an active role in the Lenfest Group, and Suburban Cable TV Co., Inc. She serves on the board of several cultural institutions including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

In or around 2002, Lenfest and his wife donated $5.5 million to help build the five-story "Lenfest Pavilion" addition to Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

Lenfest plans on donating all of his wealth to worthy causes before he dies. On March 21, 2007, Lenfest announced a donation of $33 million to be spent solely on faculty compensation at his alma mater, Washington and Lee University, where he serves as a trustee, and an unpublished amount to Wilson College, his wife's alma mater. In recent years, Lenfest has given over $100 million to Columbia University, where his donations include a $48 million challenge gift toward the endowment of 32 new professorships, $15 million toward construction of a Law School residence hall which bears his name, $15 million to support the programs of the Earth Institute, $12 million to endow awards for outstanding teaching, and most recently a $30 million pledge to help build a Caucasian Studies venue on the Manhattanville campus.

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