Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking and oil fortune and publisher who funded conservative causes, has died at his home, his newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, reported. His death came just one day after his 82nd birthday, the newspaper said. He announced in May that he had an untreatable form of cancer.
He was the grand-nephew of Andrew Mellon, a banker and secretary of the Treasury who was involved with some of the biggest industrial companies of the early 20th century, the Associated Press reported. Forbes magazine estimated Scaife’s net worth in 2013 at $1.4 billion.
Alastair Jamieson