Obituary: Robert W. Wilson, Atheist Financier Who Backed Faith Schools

Robert W. Wilson, who earned a fortune in hedge funds and contributed tens of millions of dollars to New York Catholic schools despite being an openly gay atheist, died Monday at age 87, The New York Times writes. Police said Mr. Wilson, who suffered a stroke in June, left a suicide note and jumped to his death from his 16th-floor Manhattan apartment.

Known for frugality in his personal life, Mr. Wilson began giving his wealth away after retiring in 1986 from Wilson & Associates, the Wall Street firm he founded. He made $100-million matching grants to four major environmental groups in 2006 and made headlines a year later when he began donating to the New York Archdiocese’s school system, which he considered more efficient than public schools.

Thought he donated most of his money, Mr. Wilson was critical of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge effort to enlist billionaires to commit half their fortunes to charity, according to the New York Post. Asked by Mr. Gates to join the pledge in 2010, Mr. Wilson responded (in an e-mail obtained by the website BuzzFeed) that he considered the pledge “practically worthless,” in part because it allowed signers to give their riches to family-controlled foundations that “become, more often than not, bureaucracy-ridden sluggards.”

Read a 2008 Chronicle of Philanthropy profile of Mr. Wilson and an article about his support of Catholic education.