GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Peter Wege, heir to the Steelcase Inc. fortune whose philanthropy kept much of the office furniture manufacturer’s money in Grand Rapids, has died. He was 94.
Peter Melvin Wege died Monday at his home in Grand Rapids, Terri McCarthy, the Wege Foundation’s vice president of programming, said Tuesday.
Wege’s father, Peter Martin Wege, founded Steelcase in 1912 and died in 1947. Steelcase and rival office furniture manufacturers Haworth Inc. and Herman Miller Inc. anchored the Grand Rapids area’s economy for decades.
As Steelcase’s largest shareholder, Wege — a fervent environmentalist — was able to commit millions of dollars toward “green” causes.
He retired as vice chairman of the Steelcase board of directors about a decade ago to work full-time on his foundation, which he created in 1967. It has given away millions, much of it in his hometown.
In 1998, he wrote a book called “Economicology” — a word combining economics and ecology — that spelled out his ideas about corporate environmental responsibility.
