Max Palevsky: Computer Magnate and Philanthropist Dies

Billionaire Max Palevsky donated lavishly to politics and the arts as well as to other eclectic pursuits. In certain well-connected circles, Max Palevsky was known as the billionaire patron of Los Angeles' first black mayor, Tom Bradley.

But his portfolio resembled a conglomerate's. A baron of the early computer industry, he helped found the world's largest chipmaker, Intel. He came up with the cash to save a fledgling magazine called Rolling Stone and bankrolled movies. And he used his immense wealth to build notable art collections that turned the Los Angeles County Museum of Art into a destination for lovers of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Palevsky, 85, died Wednesday of heart failure at his Beverly Hills home, said his wife, Jodie Evans.

“I'm not sure the average person knows him," said television producer Norman Lear, a longtime friend, “but anybody interested in the arts has Max to thank for the way he supported arts in this town and, if you cared for his politics, for who he supported. He was a very unique soul."

The noted art collector and philanthropist gained prominence in the 1960s when he turned Scientific Data Systems, a builder of mainframe computers, into a hugely lucrative business that he sold to Xerox in 1969 for $1 billion. He went on to serve as a director and chairman of Xerox's executive committee before becoming a founder and director of Intel Corp.

He left the corporate world during the 1970s to produce movies, bolster the coffers of Rolling Stone and delve into politics.

He was an early supporter of George McGovern during his ill-fated 1972 presidential campaign, then ran Bradley's successful 1973 bid for mayor. He also was a major backer of Robert F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter during their presidential bids, and various campaigns of former Gov. Gray Davis. And, with Lear, he was a member of the “Malibu Mafia," a loose alliance of extremely wealthy Westside Democrats who used their influence to promote liberal causes and candidates.

In later years, Palevsky soured on politics and concentrated more of his attention on art. He built important collections of Arts and Crafts movement furniture and Japanese woodblock prints, which have been featured in shows at LACMA.

He made a dramatic reentry into the political fray in 2000 when he wrote a $1-million check to the campaign finance reform initiative co-authored by Ron Unz, a conservative Silicon Valley tycoon.

The contribution the largest political donation Palevsky had ever made shocked state Democratic leaders, who opposed the ultimately unsuccessful measure. But Palevsky, saying that he was sickened by the “corruption of the electoral process," announced that he made the contribution “in hopes that I will never again legally be allowed to write huge checks to California political candidates."

Palevsky got his first taste of politics in the 1960s. In 1966, he supported Tom Braden, a newspaper publisher, for California's lieutenant governor. In 1967, he was a regional leader of the antiwar group Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace. Those experiences led to his involvement in Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and the tumultuous Chicago Democratic National Convention, where he met McGovern.

“In some way, I guess, I tasted blood in the '68 campaign. I really saw what it was all about," he told the New York Times in 1972.