William P. Carey ’52

An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bill came to the class from Pomfret. He roomed with Biddle Worthington and Frank Peard freshman year, and then transferred to Penn, from which he graduated in ’53.

In 1973, Bill founded W.P. Carey & Co., which became a leader in sale and leaseback real-estate operations. Now listed on the NYSE, it manages about $12 billion in assets.

Bill hosted the first of a series of occasional ’52 luncheons in New York and handed around his business card, which mentioned the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in Tempe. When asked about it, he said, “My grandfather went from Virginia to the Arizona Territory, and when it became a state they gave him Tempe.”

In 1988 he founded the W.P. Carey Foundation and later made substantial gifts for the Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland (named for his grandfather) and to launch the Johns Hopkins University James Carey School of Business.

Bill died Jan. 2, 2012, in West Palm Beach, Fla., from heart disease. His memorial service at St. Thomas Church in New York included statements by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

He is survived by his brother, Francis J. ’47, to whom the class offers its sympathy.