A native of Portland, Oregon, he founded the company Business Wire in 1961 and donated in excess of $700 million to charities, with the majority of the money given to schools.
[8] Lokey resumed college in 1947, having been drafted into the army in 1944, following his freshman year,[7] graduating from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism.
[11] In 2006, Lokey sold Business Wire for approximately $600 million to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's corporation.
[1][9][13][14] These efforts led to his listing as one of the ten highest donors in the United States by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2006.
[6] In October 2008, the Stanford School of Medicine announced that Lokey would donate $75 million for a research facility.
[20] He also donated money to establish a new chemistry building at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.