David Copley Profile by Anna Iskandarian

The Philanthropist Living in Style

Adopted into one of the most prominent families in San Diego, David C. Copley has now turned into one of San Diego’s most prominent philanthropists and spenders.
After the Copley Press sold its other papers in Illinois and Ohio to maintain control and stability, David began investing his time and money in more charitable ways, donating to political campaigns, the Lost Squadron Museum, $3 million to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and even $5 million to Sharp Memorial Hospital where he underwent heart transplant surgery in 2005.
But this philanthropist, publisher of the San Diego Union- Tribune, Chairman, Chief Executive officer, and President of the Copley Press., does not live in discomfort; he ranked in Forbes 400 richest Americans in 2005 and 2006 and is in the process of expanding his mansion in La Jolla.
Even now, when Copley travels, he doesn’t cut back like the Copley Press, his splurges on his trips to Paris and Zurich, from the fine food to the $1200 rooms he stays in and he cruises with friends on his yacht called Happy Days, the largest composite yacht ever made in the Americas.