There are many reasons to admire Charles “Chuck” Feeney. He built a multi-billion dollar company, the DFS duty-free empire. He has given away more than $6 billion of his fortune to charity. And he has been among the biggest supporters of peace in Northern Ireland.

But the chief reason to admire Chuck Feeney is his announcement yesterday: that he is ending his charitable giving.

It’s not that Feeney has become stingy or uncaring.

The 81-year-old philanthropist is winding down his charitable foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, because he has largely fulfilled his promise to give away the bulk of his fortune during his lifetime. He called it “giving while living.”

Fully thirty years after he first set up Atlantic, most of his fortune has been gifted and he’s winding down his charitable shop. Just like he promised.

“I believe strongly in ‘giving while living,’” he wrote in a statement. “I see little reason to delay giving when so much good can be achieved through supporting worthwhile causes today. Besides, it’s a lot more fun to give while you live than to give while you are dead.”

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