Palm Beach billionaire alert! What to know about new homeowner Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim

Billionaires and Palm Beach go hand in hand these days, as the world’s wealthiest continue to flock to Palm Beach.

In all, the Palm Beach Daily News has identified more than 50 of the world’s wealthiest people who own homes in this affluent island town on Florida’s Gold Coast, where the most famous billionaire resident is former President Donald J. Trump.

The latest billionaire to join the town’s roster of residents is investor, inventor and philanthropist Dr. Herbert A. Wertheim, 83, who just paid a recorded $17.9 million for a three-floor condominium in a quadplex on Brazilian Avenue.

Wertheim may not be as famous as Trump, but he has made plenty of news over the years for his philanthropy, which includes his charitable foundation's recent — and staggering — $100 million gift to the University of Florida.

The donation was not only the largest single-donor gift in UF’s history but was part of a $1 billionpublic-private partnership between Wertheim’s foundation and the state’s flagship public university. The gift benefited what was for years known as the Scripps Biomedical Research Institute in Jupiter, about 20 miles north of Palm Beach. The facility has since been renamed The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

Here are a few details, drawn from media reports, about this self-made billionaire — who is seldom photographed without his signature red fedora — and how he came by his fortune, which Forbes.com estimates at $4.4 billion.

Wertheim buys Palm Beach condo:Billionaire pays a recorded $17.9 million for tri-level condo in Midtown Palm Beach

Massive gift:Wertheim foundation gives $100 million to UF Scripps Biomedical Research Institute in Jupiter

His family moved to Florida in 1945 — and his nickname is 'Herbie'

Known to friends as “Herbie,” Wertheim and his parents — Jewish immigrants who fled to America from Nazi Germany — moved from his native Philadelphia to Hollywood in Broward County in 1945. He has told media outlets he was raised in poverty and as a boy was ashamed of the holes in his shoes. His youth was also complicated by dyslexia, which made reading difficult.

He made his own fortune and grew it by shrewd investments

Trained as an optometrist, Wertheim also is an inventor who developed new techniques for dyeing plastic sunglass lenses. His pioneering work ended up aiding victims of dyslexia, who found their condition was mitigated when they wore specially tinted lenses. A prolific patent holder, he founded a privately held business — Brain Power Inc., or BPI — a developer and manufacture of tinted plastic lenses and ophthalmic chemicals, machinery and related items, some of which help prevent eye damage from cataracts and retinal deterioration.

Wertheim is known for his shrewd investment skills and is today the largest single investor in Heico, a major aerospace company.

World’s wealthiest: Palm Beach sees hike in billionaires, analysis of latest Forbes data shows

Big, big bucks:Palm Beach billionaires’ wealth tops $408 billion, our analysis of new Forbes data shows

Wertheim’s philanthropy has emphasized education, technology, culture

The billionaire’s financial gifts have typically been channeled through his and his wife’s charitable arm, the Dr. Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Family Foundation.

Among the educational institutions that bear his name, thanks to major gifts, are colleges and schools under the umbrella of Florida International University in Miami-Dade County, where the Wertheims have had a home for years. Those educational entities include FIU’s college of medicine, college of engineering, and school of music and performing arts. FIU’s college of nursing and health sciences is named for his wife.

He also is the namesake of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity of the University of California at San Diego, the city where he was stationed in the 1950s when he was in the U.S. Navy.

Go Gators! Wertheim holds a degree from UF and other schools

Wertheim’s $100 million gift to the University of Florida went to one of his alma maters. He graduated from UF, where he studied electrical engineering. He also holds a bachelor of science degree in optical engineering and a doctor of optometry degree from the Southern College of Optometry in association with the University of Tennessee Medical School.

What about that condo he bought in Palm Beach?

Wertheim used a trust in his name to buy the Palm Beach residence in the Palazzo Villas quadplex via a deed recorded Feb. 13. Resembling a townhouse, the three-level condo has 6,092 square feet of living space, inside and out, and is as large as some single-family homes in Palm Beach. Wertheim’s interests in the deal were represented by broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate, who negotiated opposite agent Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties. Read more about the condo — and its ultraluxury amenities — here.

Listed in November:Priced at about $20 million, townhouse-like condo on Brazilian Avenue among top 5 priciest in Palm Beach

Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: More about Palm Beach condo buyer and billionaire Dr. Herbert Wertheim