Lorry I. Lokey (March 27, 1927 – October 1, 2022) was an American businessperson and philanthropist. A native of

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, he founded the company

Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...

in 1961 and donated in excess of $700 million to charities, with the majority of the money given to schools. He resided in San Francisco during his later years.

Early life

Lorry Lokey was born on March 27, 1927, in

, and raised in the

Northeast Portland Northeast Portland is one of the six major divisions of Portland, Oregon. Northeast Portland contains a diverse collection of neighborhoods. For example, while Irvington and the Alameda Ridge feature some of the oldest and most expensive homes i ...

neighborhood of

Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santi ...

during the Depression. His

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family practiced charity, setting the example for Lokey. He attended Alameda Elementary School in Portland,"Portland native pledges $5M for library".
''

Portland Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...

'', May 29, 2007."Lokey gives UO largest gift: $74.5M".
''

'', October 15, 2007. then graduated from Grant High School before being draftedLorry Lokey, Atherton philanthropist and Business Wire founder, dies
(Emily Mibach) Palo Alto Daily Post, October 3, 2022 into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

, then deployed to Japan during the final months of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.McBride, Tess
"The man behind the money".
''

Oregon Daily Emerald The ''Daily Emerald'' is the independent, student-run weekly newspaper produced at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Its predecessor, the ''Oregon Daily Emerald'' newspaper, founded in 1899, trained many prominent writer ...

'', February 9, 2007. While in the service he worked on the '' Pacific Stars & Stripes'' as an editor after the war ended. Lokey resumed college in 1947, having been drafted into the army in 1944, following his freshman year, graduating from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism."Lorry Lokey gives Stanford stem cell institute $33M".
''

San Jose Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...

'', February 27, 2007. At Stanford, he worked on ''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the ...

'', becoming editor of the school newspaper in 1949. Upon graduation Lokey began working for United Press, now

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...

(UPI), and then at newspapers and in the public relations field. One newspaper he worked for was '' The Daily News'' in

Longview, Washington Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, Cowlitz County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longvie ...

Business career

Inspired by the sight of a teletype machine transferring financial news during a conference in Los Angeles, Lokey started

, a news release service, in 1961. Founded in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California, the company started with seven clients on the first day of business.Caldwell, Douglas E
"Profile: Spreading the word".
''

'', July 4, 2003. The company expanded and became an international wire service with 30 offices around the world. By 2003, the company had grown to 450 employees with annual revenue of $110 million. In 2006, Lokey sold Business Wire for approximately $600 million to

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist who currently serves as the chairman and CEO of the conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his investment success, Buffett is ...

's corporation.

Philanthropy

Lokey began donating large sums of money to charities in 1990. By 2007, he had donated more than $400 million, of which 98 percent was given to secondary and post-secondary education. Some schools include the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

, Stanford University, the Technion,

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private university, private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university' ...

Bellarmine College Preparatory Bellarmine College Preparatory is an all-boys, Jesuit, private secondary school located in San Jose, California. Founded on May 8, 1851, it is the oldest Jesuit secondary school in California and the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River. ...

, and

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

. These efforts led to his listing as one of the ten highest donors in the United States by the ''Chronicle of Philanthropy'' in 2006. He was also an early signer of

The Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority (i.e. more than 50%) of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has had 236 signatories from 28 ...

. During his lifetime, Lokey donated over 90% of his fortune,A Philanthropist at Heart
Christine Foster; Stanford Magazine; December 2022. exceeding . He was the University of Oregon's 2017-2018 honorary degree recipient. In 2018, he donated $10 million to the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

for the construction of a new building in downtown

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Israel. As of June 2014, Lokey had also donated a total of $139.9 million to the University of Oregon in

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

. This includes a $74.5 million donation in 2007 that was the second most ever given to the school, and the largest donation designated for academics. The 2007 donation went towards the creation of the Lorry I. Lokey Science Advancement and Graduate Education Initiative. In October 2008, the Stanford School of Medicine announced that Lokey would donate $75 million for a research facility.
The facility is named the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building. He also donated money to establish a new chemistry building at the

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public university, public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli List of national founders, national founder David Ben-Gurion, the unive ...

in Israel.

Personal life

Lokey had three daughters. He died in

Atherton, California Atherton ( ) is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 6,823 as of July 2023 estimates. The town's zoning regulations permit only one single-family home per acre in new subdivisions, though smal ...

, on October 1, 2022, at age 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lokey, Lorry 1927 births 2022 deaths American chief executives Jewish American military personnel United States Army personnel of World War II Philanthropists from Oregon Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon Military personnel from Portland, Oregon 21st-century American philanthropists Grant High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni Businesspeople from San Francisco Stanford University alumni United States Army soldiers University of Oregon people 21st-century American Jews 20th-century American Jews