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COVER STORY

John Kluge ’37, Businessman and Entrepreneur

“John Kluge [’37] ranks as one of the least known but most powerful moguls in the modern television industry in the United States,” according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
Born in 1914 in Chemnitz, Germany, Kluge immigrated when he was 8. He grew up in Detroit and won a scholarship that allowed him to attend the College.

“Looking back at my life as an undergraduate at Columbia, I remember it as a time of hard work — not only schoolwork, but also the part-time jobs that helped my classmates and me to get by in those years following the Depression,” Kluge said in 1988, upon receiving an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University.

Kluge’s first job after graduation was at a printing company in Detroit. During World War II, he served in the Army, becoming a captain in military intelligence.

Embracing entrepreneurship, Kluge gradually acquired media outlets, starting with a radio station, WGAY, in Maryland, and expanding into other radio stations and then independent television stations. He bought syndicated rights to television shows and movies, and later invested in telecommunication technologies. Metromedia, the company he built, grew into the largest independent television business in the United States and diversified into other areas.

In 1986, Kluge sold his television interests to Rupert Murdoch and became more involved with philanthropy. According to Forbes, he was at that time the wealthiest individual in America.

In addition to endowing the Kluge Scholars Program at Columbia with the largest gifts to the University by an individual, Kluge has contributed generously to the Library of Congress, where he formed the James Madison Council, a private sector advisory board. He also founded there the Kluge Center, which brings scholars and politicians together, and helped fund the National Digital Library project, which makes the library’s educational resources more accessible.

“I’d rather by far invest in people than buildings,” Kluge says. “If I can help a person to improve his or her mind, that will pass on to their children and to their children’s children.”

S.B.B.

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