Peter Pulitzer -- the multimillionaire grandson of famed newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer who became the subject of lurid tabloid headlines during his divorce from second wife Roxanne Pulitzer -- died Saturday at his home in Palm Beach.
The devilishly-handsome Palm Beach-born Pulitzer quit college and with $500,000 of the family fortune founded several wildly successful businesses including hotels, cattle ranches and citrus groves. He was also a noted sportsman and adventurer.
Pulitzer helped fund the fashion business of his first wife, Lillian McKim, who’s bright, colorful, floral-print women’s clothing became a world sensation and multimillion dollar brand, Lily Pulitzer, Inc., and with whom he had three children, Peter, Minnie and Liza.
It was Pulitzer’s second marriage to former high-school cheerleader Roxanne Dixon, with whom he had twin sons, Mac and Zac, which catapulted his name into the tabloid spotlight.
In 1982, during an explosive 21-day divorce trial covered by reporters from around the world, the warring couple traded charges of adultery, kinky sex and drug use, according to one book.
Pulitzer’s third marriage was to Hilary King, who survives him along with his children and grandchildren.
Pulitzer had been in excellent health until recently, his daughter Liza Calhoun told The Palm Beach Daily News.
"We always thought he would be eaten by a shark or killed by a bear in the woods or fall out of a seaplane. We were all together on Easter Sunday when he suddenly got very tired. A few days later, hospice was called in," Calhoun said to the newspaper.
Society band leader Peter Duchin told The Palm Beach Post: "He was racy … I mean in the sense of just jumping into his plane and flying off. He eschewed the normal social crap."
Pulitzer’s death came two days before the announcement of the annual Pulitzer Prize awards for outstanding journalism, literature, and musical composition established in 1917 according to provisions in the will of his grandfather Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World and St. Louis Post Dispatch.