H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, 88, who substantially remade the educational, cultural, and media sectors of the city and well beyond to become one of Philadelphia’s most dynamic civic leaders of the last century, died Sunday morning, a spokesperson for the family said.

Courtesy of the Lenfest family Gerry Lenfest in 1973.

Mr. Lenfest, who had been in declining health in recent months, parlayed the sale of the family cable business into a second act as the area’s leading philanthropist for nearly two decades, giving away more than $1.3 billion.

The dimming of the Lenfest era leaves no obvious successor of similar ambition on behalf of the city and region.

“Gerry has had a huge impact on the renaissance and renewal of Philadelphia and all of its institutions,” said Philadelphia Museum of Art president and chief operating officer Gail Harrity. “I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he has shaped Philadelphia for the future.”

Said David McCullough, the author and historian: “I think he was one of the most memorable and lovable men I’ve ever known. A devoted Philadelphian if ever there was one. His love of that city and its history, and his willingness to be not only generous with his philanthropy but to work hard to attain a worthy objective, is something we could all take a lesson from on how to go about life. He was a terrific man.”

“We’ve lost our greatest citizen, there’s no doubt about that,” said Ed Rendell, former Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor. “He impacted the lives of Philadelphians at every level, in the city, in the neighborhoods.” Rendell said that whether he was appealing to him to assist a growing arts group or to fund a program for a vulnerable population, “he almost never said no.”

In this video made in 2016 for the Museum of the American Revolution, H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, philanthropist, former owner of Philadelphia Media Network, and founder of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism (the current owner of the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com), talks about his upbringing, influences on his approach to leadership, marriage and family, law and business career, and philanthropy, while others, including historian David McCullough and former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, describe his efforts in making the museum a reality.

Mr. Lenfest was born neither to wealth nor the social status enjoyed by some of his fellow philanthropists. A lawyer by training, Mr. Lenfest and wife Marguerite built up their cable business over several decades, selling Lenfest Communications Inc. in 2000 and undertaking a philanthropic spree that put the Lenfest name alongside those of Girard, Widener, Curtis, Annenberg, Pew, and Haas – the city’s historically most generous families.

He was “one of the greatest philanthropists the city has ever seen,” said Comcast Corp. chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts, who had several close dealings with the businessman before Comcast ended up taking over Lenfest Communications. “He has changed our city and so many institutions.”

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said in a statement: "Gerry and his wife, Marguerite, took their incredible success and offered the full energy of their lives in service of their fellow citizens and the city and state that they loved. There is likely not an organization or charity in Philadelphia that didn't benefit from the Lenfest family's generosity in some way."

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, speaking for himself and his wife, Sue, said: "Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest are among the finest Pennsylvanians we ever met."

He was soft-spoken, except when facing resistance; generous, unless negotiating across the table from a balky union official; and prone to taking a hard-nosed business approach to giving – though he could be a soft touch if you knew just where to scratch. He raised considerable dismay in the cultural community by donating $5.8 million to the SS United States as it sat idle and rusting on the Delaware River, but explained himself by saying he believed that his father had once worked on the once-luxurious ocean liner, and calling it “an icon of American pride.”

KIM WEIMER / For the Inquirer Gerry Lenfest in 1987, when he was president of Suburban Cable, in his Pottstown office.

After making plans to donate all his wealth, Mr. Lenfest became an éminence grise to the city’s arts groups. He was chairman of the board of old-line institutions like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Curtis Institute of Music, successfully convincing other supporters that even great traditions needed to be expanded upon and brought up to date.

And he willed new ones into existence. He established the Lenfest Ocean Program, and believed in the new Museum of the American Revolution to the tune of more than $63 million in cash donations, becoming its largest donor. He lived to see it become a reality, greeting guests from a wheelchair when the museum opened its doors in April 2017.

Even late in life, he was taking on projects as risky as they were critical. Mr. Lenfest became a newspaper owner as the industry was contracting, buying the company that publishes the Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com. In January 2016, at age 85, he blended his business acumen and civic heart to launch an experiment in journalism, donating Philadelphia Media Network to a new nonprofit, the Institute for Journalism in New Media, now called the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, to allow it to stump for donations.

A portion of the additional revenue thrown off by a new endowment – on top of traditional sources like advertising and circulation revenue – is being spent on enhancing the journalism and speeding the transition to full digital integration for the newspapers. The goal is to develop a business model that can preserve for the city its prime newsgathering operation.

“What would the city be without the Inquirer and the Daily News?" asked Mr. Lenfest at the time of his gift. “Of all the things I've done, this is the most important. Because of the journalism.”

It also was among his most generous gestures. The estimated total worth of the donation (including the original purchase price of the property and subsequent donations to the endowment) exceeds $129 million. Said PMN publisher and CEO Terrance C.Z. Egger: “His mantra was that as important as the Art Museum is, as worthy as the orchestra is in the community, journalism is easily as important or more. He said all the time, ‘There is nothing I could think of as important as keeping journalism alive in the city I love.’”

A Powerhouse Couple

Love it he did. Mr. Lenfest relished his public role, bringing a frisson of quiet cheer and warm wit to parties, art openings, and concerts. “When you saw him at whatever it was, there was a gleam in his eye,” said lawyer Richard A. Sprague, who represented Mr. Lenfest in matters relating to the purchase of the media company, “and there was a sort of bearing that he had, that he was enjoying what he was doing, and you felt it.”

MICHAEL S. WIRTZ / File Photograph Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest at The Curtis Institute of Music in front of a portrait of Mary Louise Curtis Bok, the founder of the institution.

“In Spanish we call it duende, a presence around someone,” said Roberto Díaz, who started as president and CEO of Curtis as Mr. Lenfest became board chairman. “There’s a very quiet strength there.”

But unlike some other philanthropists who drove a hard bargain for being recognized with naming rights on buildings in exchange for relatively modest sums, he and his wife gave freely and worried less about getting the credit than finding ways to encourage others to follow their example.

“There is a great amount of satisfaction involved in this,” Lenfest told the Inquirer in 2004 about the couple’s decision to dispense with all of their wealth. “There is a lot of pleasure in life just to have your funds go the way you feel it will provide the most good.”

The important thing in life “is not how much money you’ve made, how many cars you have, how many yachts you have, but how you feel about yourself. And I feel pretty good,” said Lenfest in a video produced for the Museum of the American Revolution.

Just as he and his wife of more than six decades were partners in building their business, plotting its path at the kitchen table of their suburban home, so it was with philanthropy. He was the more public face – sociable, eager and open – while she waved away publicity and provided much of the thought and questioning behind the scenes. They were jointly given the Philadelphia Award in 2009.

“Often in a partnership, there’s one person who puts on the brakes and another who puts on the gas. They complement each other extremely well,” Pew Charitable Trusts president and CEO Rebecca W. Rimel once said.

“I don’t think any of it would have happened without Marguerite’s blessing. She is a force,” said Curtis’ Díaz. “Some of the most consequential conversations we had about the needs of the students actually were with Marguerite as much as with Gerry, and sometimes with her first.”

The way they structured their generosity heightened its impact. Other philanthropists placed their billions in foundations to exist in perpetuity, giving out grants each year paid essentially out of investment income. The Lenfests, however, chose to spend down the entire endowment, and the effect on the nourishment and growth of hundreds of recipient institutions over a dozen and a half years was exhilarating.