Obituary: William Aramony, 84, Disgraced Former United Way Chief
November 14, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
William Aramony, the influential executive who built the United Way of America into a charity powerhouse but fell from grace amid fraud charges and an affair with a teenager, died Friday of bone cancer in Alexandria, Va., The New York Times reports.
Mr. Aramony served as the United Way’s chief executive from 1970 to 1992, developing a common name, logo, and campaign strategy for hundreds of loosely affiliated local groups and quadrupling annual receipts to $3.1-billion over the course of his tenure.
He was forced from his post amid accusations that he siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars in United Way funds and spent lavishly on himself and a Florida woman with whom he’d begun an affair after her high school graduation in 1986.
Mr. Aramony was convicted with two other United Way officials in 1995 of fraud, conspiracy, and theft and served six years in prison. The scandal badly tarnished the national United Way but the organization instituted reforms and budget cuts to restore its reputation and fund raising.
