David Packard was an American electrical engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who had a net worth of $4 billion at the time of his death in 1996. That’s the same as having around $6.6 billion in today’s dollars. He was best known for being the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. He also served as the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Richard Nixon from January 1969 to December 1971.
David Packard was born in Pueblo, Colorado in September 1912 and passed away in March 1996. David co-founded Hewlett-Packard with Bill Hewlett in 1939. David Packard served as the company’s president from 1947 to 1964, CEO from 1964 to 1968, and Chairman of the Board from 1964 to 1968 and 1972 to 1993. He also served as President of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences from 1976 to 1981 and was the organization’s Board of Regents chairman from 1973 to 1982.
Packard was a member of the Trilateral Commission and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. He also received the Sylvanus Thayer Award and the Public Welfare Medal. David Packard passed away on March 26, 1996 at 83 years old.
Wealth and Philanthropy: David was philanthropic almost from the moment he became wealthy but truly began to dedicate himself to philanthropy in the early 1980s. In 1986 they donated $40 million to establish the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. The newly-built hospital opened in 1991. At the urging of his daughters, they donated the funds needed to create the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, eventually committing $55 million to build the aquarium which opened in 1984.
In 1994, David and his co-founder Bill Hewlett donated $77 million to establish the David Packard Electrical Engineering Building at Stanford University.
In 1964 he and wife Lucile established the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. At the time of his death, David donated the bulk of his $4 billion estate to the foundation. Today the foundation’s assets are worth more than $8 billion. It is one of the 20-largest foundations in the US.
Bill Hewlett was no slouch himself, when it came to philanthropy. In 1966, two years after David founded his foundation, Bill founded The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. When Flora Hewlett died in 1977 she earmarked a huge grant of equity and funds for the foundation. By the time the funds were delivered in 1981, the foundation received $300 million from Flora’s estate. That’s the same as $850 million today. With continued contributions and stock appreciation, by the mid-1990s the foundation controlled $800 million. When Bill died in 2001, he was worth $9 billion. He left approximately $8.5 million of his assets to the foundation. Today The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation controls $10 billion in assets.
| Net Worth: | $4 Billion |
| Date of Birth: | Sep 7, 1912 – Mar 26, 1996 (83 years old) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Profession: | Entrepreneur, Businessperson, Electrical engineer, Engineer |
| Nationality: | United States of America |