Pittsburgh billionaire's will sheds little light on his wealth
By David DeKok HARRISBURG Penn. (Reuters) - Pittsburgh area billionaire and conservative political activist Richard Mellon Scaife's will has shed little light on the size of his wealth and where it will go. His lawyer confirmed on Sunday the will was filed and made public Friday at Westmoreland County Orphan’s Court in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, but it raised more questions than answers about the man who helped finance the rise of the conservative movement in America in the late 20th century. Scaife died on July 4 at the age of 82. His wealth has been estimated by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to be as much as $1.4 billion but details are shrouded behind private trusts set up during his lifetime. "There are many other provisions that we have created over a long period of time that are not public," said H. Yale Gutwin, Scaife’s personal lawyer. Neither of Scaife’s children are mentioned in the document, but Gutwin said they have been taken care of along with some of the institutions, conservative or non-political, that he supported during his lifetime. His newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which he acquired in 1969 as a key cog in his political activism, is among the favored, Gutwin said. Only two beneficiaries were named. The Brandwine Conservancy and Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., on whose board Scaife sat, will receive the 900-acre Penguin Court estate in Ligonier on which he grew up, named for the 10 penguins that once wandered the grounds. Scaife tore down the 50-room mansion on the estate in 1966 after his mother’s death. The estate is now a nature conservancy and horticultural facility. He left $15 million for upkeep. Scaife had another home, Vallamont, elsewhere in Ligonier, and one in Pittsburgh. His art collection was divided between the Brandywine Conservancy and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. The latter gets his paintings by John Kane, a primitivist whose early 20th century Pittsburgh industrial scenes hang in major museums. Scaife asked that his dogs go to good homes. (Editing by Bernard Orr)
