Early Years
Chuck Feeney was born in 1931 in Elizabeth, N.J., to a working-class Irish American family. Growing up during the Great Depression, he began his entrepreneurial journey at a young age, selling Christmas cards door-to-door and shoveling neighbors’ sidewalks for pocket money. At 17, months after graduating from St. Mary of the Assumption High School, Feeney reported to the recruitment office in Newark, N.J., to enlist in the military. It was his service as a U.S. Air Force radio operator during the Korean War that enabled him to enroll in Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration on the G.I. Bill, making him the first in his family to attend university. Although his G.I. Bill scholarship covered tuition, it wasn’t enough for living expenses, so once again Feeney relied on his entrepreneurial instincts. He began selling bologna sandwiches to classmates and quickly became known as the “Sandwich Man” on campus, later claiming to have sold over 700 sandwiches a week. Feeney graduated from the School of Hotel Administration in 1956.
A young Chuck Feeney with unidentified boy, early 1940s.
Joe Monroe, “Jonesy”, Urb Gall, and Chuck Feeney at a Security Service outing at Fort Sam Houston reservation on October 21, 1949.
Alpha Sigma Phi, 1953.
Feeney (fourth row, third from right) was initiated into the Iota Chapter in February of that year. He was also an honorary member of the Sphinx Head Society.
“Hotel for a Day.” The Syracuse Post-Standard Pictorial, May 23, 1954.
This article features Feeney as a student waiter at Hotel Ezra Cornell (top right photo). Established in 1925, and still held today, Hotel Ezra Cornell allows School of Hotel Administration students to showcase their talents to industry leaders. In 1954, this included Conrad Hilton (bottom left photo).
Photo Christmas card signed by Chuck Rolles ’56 (left) featuring Chuck Feeney (far right), ca. 1955.
As he had done in childhood, Feeney once again turned to selling Christmas cards to earn money, though it is unknown whether this card was one of them. Feeney remained lifelong friends with Rolles, appointing him as one of the first advisors to the Atlantic Philanthropies upon its founding in 1982.