A Star Wars Education: As Star Wars fans digest the news that George Lucas’ company Lucasfilm was sold to Disney for a little over $4 billion, it turns out that it wasn’t for personal profit. In fact, in an announcement today, Lucas said that he will be investing the bulk of the cash into an education foundation. Yes, he’s pretty much giving the fortune to charity.
“For 41 years, the majority of my time and money has been put into the company,” Lucas said in a statement. “As I start a new chapter in my life, it is gratifying that I have the opportunity to devote more time and resources to philanthropy.”
It’s no secret that Lucas is driven to invest in educational foundations — he is already chairman of Edutopia, part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. It’s not currently known if he’ll inject the cash into this existing program, or whether he’ll begin a new one.
In 2010, he made a commitment to The Giving Pledge, saying: “I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future — and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt—as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.”
$4 billion is one heck of a commitment, a huge sum of money that will make a revolutionary change in so many lives. It kinda puts shady $5 million pledges by attention-seeking billionaire businessmen to shame, doesn’t it?
Hats off to you, George. via THR
