Patrick McGovern

Construction worker's son feeling pinch of publishing industry slowdown. Studied biophysics at MIT while working for first U.S. computer magazine, Computers & Automation; made associate publisher by graduation. Founded International Data Group 1964; launched trade magazine Computerworld 3 years later. Now has more than 300 magazines, trade shows, 450 Web sites. Last year sales rose 6% to $3.2 billion. Gives away stock options to employees, despite having no desire to take IDG public. Company has invested $950 million in venture capital companies in China, $150 million in India, $100 million in Vietnam, $100 million in Korea. In 2000, he and his wife, Lore Harp McGovern, gave $350 million to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the study of brain science. It remains one of the largest gifts to an American university. When Patrick was about 5 years old, his family moved to Philadelphia, where he began delivering The Philadelphia Bulletin at age 8. After reading “Giant Brains” he invented a primitive computer that never lost at tick-tack-toe. The device helped him get a scholarship to M.I.T. He majored in biophysics. His survivors include his wife; a son, Patrick; a daughter, Elizabeth McGovern; two stepdaughters, Michelle Bethel and Dina Jackson; and nine grandchildren.