Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Howard Gittis, vice chairman of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. and the closest adviser to billionaire financier Ronald O. Perelman, has died. He was 73.

Gittis died in his sleep at his home in Manhattan on Sept. 16, said Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for the New York-based company. The cause was heart failure, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

MacAndrews & Forbes, a closely held company headed by Perelman, its chairman and chief executive officer, has investments in consumer products and entertainment companies, including Revlon Inc. Gittis, who spent 22 years at the firm, supervised all legal, financial and administrative affairs as chief administrative officer.

``Howard was my closest friend and most trusted adviser,'' Perelman said in a statement. ``He was a man of great wisdom, integrity and humanity. He will be greatly missed by all those whose lives he touched.''

Gittis was a director at MacAndrews & Forbes as well as at Jones Apparel Group Inc., M&F Worldwide Corp., Panavision Inc., Revlon, REV Holdings Inc. and Scientific Games Corp.

Temple University

He devoted himself to academia as well, serving for 27 years on the board of trustees at Temple University in Philadelphia, including six as chairman. Gittis led the school through ``a period of unprecedented growth,'' the university said in 2006, when it named the student center after him.

Under Gittis, Temple's enrollment increased 17 percent and undergraduate applications rose by 40 percent. Temple's endowment grew by more than 45 percent.

``Of all the things I have endeavored to do in my life, my service to this university, next to my family, is the most significant to me,'' Gittis said when the student center was renamed.

His donations to Temple included a $5 million pledge to create the Ronald O. Perelman Professorship in Entrepreneurial Finance at the Fox School of Business and Management in 2004; three matching grants -- called Gittis Challenges -- to Temple's annual fund in 2004-05 and 2005-06; and other unrestricted contributions to support the university's general operations.

``I am a child of immigrants, the first in my family to go to college,'' he told the Temple Times in 2004. ``A good education enabled me to make a fine living -- and I believe that you have to give back.''

Gittis served as New York finance chairman for Republican Senator John McCain's campaign for president. In the mid-1970s he was the attorney for Philadelphia Mayor Frank L. Rizzo during a recall attempt.

Early Years

Howard Gittis was born on Feb. 16, 1934, in Philadelphia. He graduated from the city's Central High School and earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gittis was a member of the board of overseers at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where Gittis Hall and the Gittis Center for Clinical Legal Studies are named in his honor.

Before joining MacAndrews & Forbes in 1985, Gittis was a partner at the Philadelphia law firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, where he served as the chairman of the executive committee.

Top 100

His tenure at Wolf Block lasted more than 25 years and focused on general litigation, real estate, and corporate acquisition and divestiture work. In 1985, the National Law Journal listed Gittis among the 100 top attorneys in the U.S.

Among his many honors, Gittis received the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award, the Temple University Russell H. Conwell Founders Award and the Temple University Hospital Auxiliary Acres of Diamonds Award.

Gittis was a member of the board of trustees of The New School in New York. He also spent seven years on the board of the New York-based Food Allergy Initiative.

He is survived by four daughters: Caroline Gittis Werther and her husband, Daniel; Hope Gittis Sheft and her husband, Robert; Marjorie Gittis Katz and her husband, David; and Emily Gittis Lambert; a sister, Lenore Gittis; seven grandchildren; and former wives Sondra Gittis and Lynette Harding Gittis.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Schoifet in New York at mschoifet@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 18, 2007 09:47 EDT