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Walter Annenberg 1902-2002

Walter Annenberg took over his family's publishing business and went on to become a media magnate. He created TV Guide and Seventeen magazine and led The Philadelphia Inquirer to a new level of journalistic excellence. Annenberg was a longtime supporter of the Republican Party and, in 1969, was appointed Ambassador to Britain by President Richard M. Nixon. Annenberg established the M. L. Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, named for his father, as well as a communications school at the University of Southern California. He was a prodigious art collector and donated his collection of Impressionist art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also created the Annenberg Challenge, a $500-million dollar education reform effort that included $387 million for urban public school reform. It was the largest single gift ever made to American public education.