W is for Widener – James W. Ray Dies Wealthy and Leaves Money For Homeless

James W. Ray was a man with a mental illness who was into drugs for more than the last decade of his life. He went around telling everyone that he was a wealthy man, but most people dismissed this as delusional ramblings.

It turned out though, that James actually was a member of the Widener family and that he was a very wealthy man. The Wideners are known as Philadelphia nobility and known for “the Widener University in Chester, the Widener Building in Center City, the Widener Library at Harvard University, and the 600-piece Widener art collection at the National Gallary of Art.”

In 2005, James died at 52 in Seattle with no children and he left his $80 million fortune to a nonprofit organization he had started, the Raynier Institute and Foundation. This group gives contributions to programs for homeless teens, animal causes, jazz festivals, a Buddhist monastery, and a UFO museum.

Recently, the Raynier Institute and Foundation donated $2 million to project HOME to serve homeless people. The foundation will continue to focus many of their efforts on homelessness. The board of the foundation tries to incorporate some of James’s quirky spirit into their decisions.

Jennifer Lynn, Widener Heir’s Legacy: A Home for the Homeless, Philly.com, Dec. 25, 2011. 

Special thanks to Alfred L. Brophy (Judge John J. Parker Distinguished Professor of Law, 
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill) for bringing this article to my attention.