Well-endowed: a tycoon's legacy lives on in the gift that keeps on giving.

• Author: Mildenberg, David
• Position: Up Front

No one knows what James Buchanan "Buck" Duke would think about The Duke Endowment's new $39 million Charlotte headquarters, which had its grand opening in October. He died less than a year after starting the charity with $40 million in 1924, and there's only a passing reference to office space in his directives to its overseers. But his dominance of the cigarette industry --his American Tobacco Co. was a trust busted by a Supreme Court ruling in 1911 --and mansions in Manhattan and Charlotte suggest a business genius who liked to live large.

Perhaps a classy 46,000-square-foot building, where officials ponder how to dole out $126 million in gifts this year from its $3.4 billion of assets, would suit the industry icon, even if smoking is forbidden there. The visionary manufacturer and marketer, who globalized a habit many consider worse than a vice, probably would applaud the building's financing--30-year, 3.85% notes from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.--to replace $700,000 a year to rent its former offices. Perhaps he'd chuckle at his cigar-in-hand statue in a private backyard patio garden. It's a replica of the one at Duke University, the major recipient of the $3.2 billion the endowment has distributed.

Staying true to Buck Duke's detailed wishes while adapting to change is part of the job for the 15 trustees, positions as envied as Augusta National memberships. He stipulated that the endowment invest only in Duke Power Co. shares or bonds issued by federal and state governments or municipalities with at least 50,000 people. Trustees got that rule changed, and real estate, private equity and hedge funds make up more than half the assets, which are managed by Duke University Management Co. He focused giving on four areas--rural Methodist churches, child care, health care and higher...