Richard Scaife Net Worth, Biography and Career

Richard Scaife Net Worth    $1.3 Billion

Mr. Richard Mellon Scaife was a Pittsburgh philanthropist and an heir to the Mellon banking fortune. He supported right-wing causes, helped laid the foundations for America’s modern conservative movement, and fueled the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

We’ve included in this article, full details regarding the late American businessman’s life and accomplishments throughout the span of his career.

Early Life: Childhood, Education

Richard Mellon Scaife, known as Dickie, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the United States on July 3, 1932, as one of two children of Alan Magee Scaife and his wife Sarah Cordelia Mellon Scaife. His mother was the daughter of Richard B. Mellon, an American tycoon who made fortunes in banking and oil.

His father, on the other hand, was the scion of a Pittsburgh steel family. Along with his sister, Cordelia, Richard was brought up on the family estate in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. When he was nine years old, he suffered a fractured skull in a horse-riding accident and was made to spend a year in bed, mostly reading newspapers.

He developed an early interest in politics, also due to senators and congressmen frequently visiting his home during his childhood.

After graduating from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, he enrolled at Yale University to advance his studies. However, he got suspended for drunken pranks and was expelled in his first year. He later attended the University of Pittsburgh, an institution where his father served as chairman of the trustees, graduating in 1957 with a degree in English.

Professional Life: Business Career

He inherited roughly $500 million in 1965, and with family endowments and income from investments in oil, real estate, and steel, and the family trust, he nearly tripled his wealth over his lifetime.

In his first foray into politics, in 1964, Mr. Richard Scaife backed the Arizona Republican, Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who lost his presidential bid in a landslide. In 1972, he gave $1 million to the re-election campaign of President Richard M. Nixon. In the 1980s, he ardently supported Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

However, disillusioned by Nixon and Watergate, Richard switched his focus from officeholders to ideologies. His influence in the rise of neoconservatism became more audible primarily due to his contributions to lobbyists, think tanks, and publications that promoted lower taxes, free-market economics, l and cuts in social welfare programs.

Beneficiaries included Judicial Watch, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute.

In another approach, in the 1990s, Richard Scaife poured millions into a crusade against Mr. Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, bankrolling investigations by publications, notably his own Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the conservative American Spectator, that were aimed at questioning the Clintons.

In 2008, Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York running for president by then, met Mr. Scaife and reporters and editors of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for an interview. The newspaper endorsed her, and Mr. Scaife revealed that he had a very different impression of Hillary Clinton at the time.

Mr. Richard Scaife also spent millions of dollars on what he called a nonpolitical campus, community and church organizations that encouraged conservative causes; public interest law firms; and groups that promoted business interests.

He also donated to Planned Parenthood, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Carnegie Institute, the National Gallery of Art, and several museums and hospitals.

After his father died in 1958, Richard took his seats on corporate boards but didn’t get much to do in the family business, which his uncle, R. K. Mellon, controlled.

His mother, who backed environmental and medical causes, family planning and charities for the disabled and underprivileged, encouraged his interest in philanthropy. He distributed his personal money through the Sarah Scaife, Carthage, and Allegheny Foundations.

In the 1970s, Mr. Scaife purchased several newspapers, including The Tribune-Review in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He spent huge amounts of money to turn it into a metropolitan newspaper marketed as The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Personal Life: Children, Relationships, Private Interests

Known for his reclusive lifestyle, Richard never ran for public office or tried to promote his political views by giving public speeches. He was notoriously withdrawn from society, rarely giving interviews or providing answers to questions surrounding controversies that regularly engulfed him.

He had a longstanding drinking problem and engaged in bitter feuds with friends, relatives, and employees, and these made sure that his troubled life made it to the news media, despite assemblages of lawyers, spokesmen and retainers funded to insulate him from the limitless public fascination with his wealth and power.

Mr. Richard who was called intuitive but not intellectual by his friends, told Vanity Fair in an interview that his favorite book was John O’Hara’s “Appointment in Samarra,” and his favorite TV show was “The Simpsons”.

He married Frances L. Gilmore in 1956 and they had two children together before calling their union off in 1991. Later that year, he married his longtime mate, Margaret Ritchie Battle. They were separated in 2005, and she was awarded a settlement of $725,000 every month from her husband’s fortune. They divorced in 2012.

At the age of 82, Mr. Richard died at his home in Pittsburgh in 2014. It was said that he had an untreatable form of cancer. Survivors include his son and daughter and two grandchildren.

Richard Scaife Net Worth: Salary, Income Sources, Assets

Mr. Richard Scaife had a net worth of 1.3 billion dollars at the time of his passing. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richard Scaife became a billionaire during his lifetime partially due to his inheritance from his father.

He succeeded in nearly tripling his net worth through many years of hard work and intelligent investments. He was also heavily involved with his family’s philanthropic organizations.

When his mother passed away in 1972, he and his sister were left in charge of the family fortune. He ended up with primary control of his family’s foundations and funds after his relationship with his sister turned sour.

He led the family’s businesses and foundations single-handedly, turning them into successful national powerhouses, and eventually died a billionaire at the age of 82. For all he accomplished during his lifetime, Mr. Richard Scaife’s legacy will live on for many generations to come.