Mr. Henrich spent most of his career as a senior partner at the Center City firm of Dilworth Paxson L.L.P., where colleagues remembered him as "the very definition of a partner."

"He was a first-rate lawyer and a first-rate business executive," said Stephen J. Harmelin, Dilworth's managing partner.

Annenberg, a philanthropist and former U.S. ambassador to Britain, so admired Mr. Henrich's counsel that he interrupted Mr. Henrich's legal career in 1985 by hiring him as president of Triangle Publications Inc., the Philadelphia-based media firm that was the basis of his great fortune. Triangle had sold The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News years earlier.

"Theirs was more than a professional relationship," Mr. Henrich's wife, Dorothy, recalled yesterday. "They became best friends."

Annenberg's nickname for his 6-foot, 4-inch friend was "Big Redwood," she said, and the Henrichs frequently visited the Annenbergs at their estate near Palm Springs, Calif.

In addition to running Triangle, Mr. Henrich advised Annenberg and his wife, Leonore, on the creation of many of their trusts and philanthropic foundations.

After Annenberg sold Triangle - publisher of TV Guide, the Daily Racing Form, and Seventeen, and owner of numerous TV and radio stations - to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in 1988 for $3.1 billion, Mr. Henrich returned to Dilworth, where he continued to work until his retirement in 2003.

"He was one of the greatest lawyers in the history of the firm," recalled Dilworth chairman Joseph Jacovini. "His professional skills were surpassed only by his kindness."

Harmelin, who joined a conference call with Jacovini, agreed, adding, "But it would be a big mistake to believe that because he was so polite that he wasn't strong." As president of Triangle, Mr. Henrich proved "a very tough client" for his friends and colleagues at Dilworth, Harmelin observed - to which Jacovini laughingly assented. But Mr. Henrich, he said, was the "glue that held that [Triangle] deal together."

Although he hobnobbed with billionaires and his name appeared sometimes in the society pages, Mr. Henrich was of modest background. Born in West Philadelphia, he graduated from West Catholic High School and La Salle College, and earned his law degree at Temple University.

He married Dorothy Kolsun in 1953, joined Dilworth in 1956, and was made a partner in 1962.

"Basically, we took most of our people from places like Penn, Yale, and Harvard," recalled William Coleman Jr., a founding partner of Dilworth and U.S. secretary of transportation in the Ford administration. "But Bill moved up the ladder faster than anyone."

Mr. Henrich served on the boards of La Salle University, the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, the University of California's Annenberg School for Communication, Beneficial Savings Bank, and the Philadelphia Consolidated Insurance Co.

He remained Stateside in the Army during the Korean War, said his son, Richard.

One of Mr. Henrich's passions was for physical fitness, until poor health slowed him.

"He and my father would meet regularly to run through Wissahickon Valley Park starting in the 1950s," recalled Crawford Hill, whose father, Louis, was a Dilworth partner.

The Hill and Henrich families vacationed together, he said, and their outings included rugged hiking and camping trips in the Appalachian, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Mountains.

"Bill was the kind of guy who'd show up at our house and four minutes later had organized all us kids into a Wiffle ball game or water basketball," said Hill.

But the vigor with which Mr. Henrich engaged in physical activity, running as much as 75 miles a week, caught up with him about 12 years ago when his hips gave out, recalled Richard Henrich.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by sons William, Michael, and David, six grandchildren, and a brother.

A viewing will be tomorrow from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic Church, 437 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill, followed by a Memorial Mass at 11:30. Burial is private.

Donations in Mr. Henrich's memory may be made to the Friends of the Wissahickon, 8708 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia 19118, or to the Annenberg-Henrich Scholarship Fund, c/o La Salle University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., Philadelphia 19141.