Last Testament

"I, Henry R. Luce, of New York, New York, declare this to be my last will and testament." As with the will of any successful man, the 22-page document filed in New York County Surrogate's Court last week was complex and lengthened by terms of trusts and the powers of the trustees named to administer them. But the effect of it was to make the Henry Luce Foundation, which was set up in 1936 in honor of Luce's father, Henry Winters Luce, the principal beneficiary of the $110 million estate. In the past, the foundation has financed student and faculty exchange programs between Far Eastern countries and the U.S., and promoted Christian education and other mission ary activities.

Luce left 149,465 shares of Time Inc. common stock, which closed the week at $108 a share, to the foundation. Another 540,000 shares, owned by a trust created in 1961, were vested in the foundation on Luce's death. Since the foundation already owned 191,029 shares, it will, with a total of 880,494 shares, control 12.7% of the common stock and constitute the largest single voting block. Its members include Luce's two sons, Henry III, who is president, and Peter Paul; Luce's sister, Elisabeth Luce Moore, and her husband Maurice T. Moore, a member of the Time Inc. board of directors and a partner in the Manhattan law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore; and two early associates of Luce's: Roy E. Larsen, chairman of the executive committee of Time Inc., and Charles L. Stillman, chairman of the finance committee.

In the Public Interest. The will be queathed 180,000 shares to be held in trust for Luce's wife, Clare Boothe Luce. She also received all of Luce's personal property, as well as their home in Phoenix, a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, and property in Hawaii. After payment of taxes and other expenses, the remainder of the estate, consisting mainly of 143,110 shares, is to be held in trust in equal amounts for Luce's two sons. Trustees, in all cases, are Henry III, Luce's brother, Sheldon R. Luce, and Luce's brother-in-law, Maurice Moore. The trustees are empowered by the will to vote all stock held in trust.

A vice president and chief of the TIME-LIFE News Bureau in London. Henry III sent a memo to the Time Inc. staff last week, quoting from his father's will: "Time Inc. is now, and is expected to continue to be, principally a journalistic enterprise and, as such, an enterprise operated in the public interest." In the memo, he thanked staffers for their notes of sympathy: "So many of you have told me that he meant more than anyone except your own fathers, or that he was like a father to you, or that in a sense, he was also your father. For the fact that any or many of you did call him your own, I am grateful to you. For the fact that he was like a father to any or many of you, I am grateful to him. The remarkable thing is that he did reach out for so many hearts as well as mine, and, in most cases, entered them."

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