Millicent Hearst Boudjakdji, 63; Led Foundation for Education

Millicent Hearst Boudjakdji, the president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, died Wednesday in Los Angeles of cancer. She was 63.

She came from a long line of publishers and philanthropists and followed the example of her great-grandmother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who was committed to children’s education and co-founded the Parent Teachers Assn., or the PTA.

As president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation since 2001, Boudjakdji developed its two main programs, one supporting journalism education for college students, the other fostering government studies for high school students, including a week spent in Washington, D.C., for a close look at Capitol Hill.

She also turned more of the foundation’s resources to after-school programs. Separately, she founded the Boudjakdji Foundation for education and the arts.

Boudjakdji was born in Los Angeles in 1939, the only daughter of David Whitmire Hearst and Hope Chandler Hearst.

Through the 1950s, her father was publisher of the family-owned Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, and she also pursued an interest in journalism. After her graduation from UCLA, she covered the United Nations for the Hearst Headline News, now known as the Hearst News Service. In 1964, she married Raouf Boudjakdji, Algerian ambassador to the U.N. The couple spent more than 10 years living abroad.

In 1984, after their four children were grown and the family had returned to the U.S., Boudjakdji worked in the Los Angeles office of Harper’s Bazaar, the Hearst-owned fashion magazine. She also assisted her father, who was vice president and later president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

In 1986, Boudjakdji joined the board of the Hearst Corp., a conglomerate of newspapers, magazines and cable networks. She also joined the Hearst Foundation for charitable giving that year.

Forbes magazine listed Boudjakdji among the 400 richest people in America in 2002, ranking her 256th, with a net worth of $900 million.

She is survived by her husband and four children, as well as three grandchildren, her mother and her only brother.

Donations in her memory may be sent to the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica.