It was a giveaway by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, that made Warner a very rich man. His net worth has been estimated at $200 million. The foundation of Warner’s pile: his stake in a cellular telephone network that served a market where information is power — Washington and its suburbs.

One of his partners, Jim Murray Jr., recalled in his book, “Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America,” that Warner “deftly brokered his contacts with wealthy businesspeople on one side and young Washington communications lawyers on the other to carve out a slice of the cellular industry for himself.”

Specifically, Warner steered investors to cellular properties in return for a piece of the action. He made money when they did. And the first big gusher for all came when Warner organized an auction of six markets across the country fashioned from frequencies raffled by the government.

Murray, who later advised Warner as governor on appointments to the oversight boards of Virginia’s public colleges and universities, wrote: “To many, the very idea of Warner’s auction was a travesty — not because Warner was breaking any laws or deceiving anyone, but because the U.S. government had given away the public-radio spectrum for free, and now the winners were promptly flipping it for a huge profit.