He was instrumental in restoring some measure of family control to the Hearst Corporation, which under his father's will is (and will continue to be while any grandchild alive at WRH Sr.'s death in 1951 is still living) controlled by a board of thirteen trustees, five from the Hearst family and eight Hearst executives. When tax laws changed to prevent the foundations his father had established from continuing to own the corporation, he arranged for the family trust (with the same trustees) to buy the shares and for longtime chief executive Richard E. Berlin, who was going senile, to be eased out to become chairman of the trustees for a period. Later William Randolph Hearst Jr. himself headed the trust and served as chairman of the executive committee of the corporation.
WilliamRandolph was the only child of George Hearst, a successful miner who became a multi-millionaire, and later U.S. Senator from California, and Phoebe Apperson Hearst, a former school teacher from Missouri.
Hearst built a life for herself as a leading philanthropist, active in society, and creating in 1921 the Free Milk Fund for the poor.
Hearst died in 1951, aged eighty-eight, at Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
Feeds |
Contact