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Richard Blum, the longtime husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, died Sunday evening following a battle with cancer, the senator announced Monday. He was 86.
“My heart is broken today. My husband was my partner and best friend for more than 40 years. He was by my side for the good times and for the challenges. I am going to miss him terribly,” Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
“Dick was incredibly devoted to his family, particularly his daughters and his grandchildren, and my heart is with them and everyone who Dick encountered,” she added. “He was the type of man who really replaced his divot in life, who left things better than he found them. His enormous generosity is an inspiration for so many of us.”
Blum, a graduate of Cal-Berkeley, founded private equity firm Blum Capital in 1975 and married then-San Francisco Mayor Feinstein five years later. The marriage was the third for Feinstein and the second for Blum, who had three daughters with his first wife.
Feinstein’s statement lauded her late husband’s charitable work for the people of the Himalayan region of Asia, citing the creation of the nonprofit American Himalayan Foundation as “one of his proudest achievements.”
“We have a hole in our hearts that will never be filled,” Feinstein concluded. “Dick, we love you, we’ll miss you and we’ll continue to celebrate everything you accomplished during an amazing life.”
In addition to his work in finance and global charity, Blum was a member of the Board of Regents at his alma mater for nearly two decades.
In 2020, Blum was revealed to have written to the university’s chancellor to push for the admission of an applicant who had been waitlisted and had an approximately 1 in 4 chance of getting in.
An audit of Cal’s admissions practices found that the unidentified student’s admission “was likely influenced by the regent’s advocacy.”
In response to the audit, Blum told the San Jose Mercury News that he had written letters of recommendation for years, and never thought they “ever had much influence.”
“This is the first time I’ve heard that maybe I did something that wasn’t right,” he said. “I think it’s a bunch of nonsense.”
Feinstein has represented California in the Senate since 1992. She is up for re-election in 2024, but has not yet said whether she intends to seek another term. She would be 91 on Election Day.
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