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SAN FRANCISCO — Randolph Apperson Hearst, the last surviving son of newspaper billionaire William Randolph Hearst, died Monday at a New York hospital following a massive stroke. He was 85. 

Hearst, who was chairman of the family’s media empire from 1973 to 1996, stayed largely out of the public eye except for the extraordinary time when his daughter, Patricia, was kidnapped by the revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. 

Throughout that ordeal, Hearst, who was then editor and president of the San Francisco Examiner, left his mansion regularly to face the media and discuss the latest SLA demands. 

When the group demanded that the Hearsts give millions of dollars in free food to California’s poor, he resolutely headed up the People In Need giveaway program, pledging $2 million. Eventually more than 90,000 bags and cartons of food were distributed. 

“Randy was the center of calm in a very turbulent period,” said his nephew, William Randolph Hearst III. 

Patricia later denounced her family, took the nom-de-guerre “Tania” and joined in a bank robbery. She eventually served 21 months in prison. 

Randolph Hearst, one of five sons of the legendary newspaper founder caricatured by Orson Welles in “Citizen Kane,” began work as a cub reporter covering police, courts and City Hall with the Hearst-owned Call-Bulletin in San Francisco. 

An heir to the family’s gold, silver and copper fortune who also earned millions each year from the Hearst Corp.’s media holdings, Hearst’s personal wealth was recently estimated to be $1.8 billion by Forbes Magazine. 

But acquaintances told the San Francisco Chronicle, which the Hearst Corp. recently acquired in a deal that also involved selling off the storied Examiner, that for all his riches and his role for many years as the family patriarch, Hearst often seemed down-to-earth. 

“He was a very bright, thoughtful, caring guy,” said William Coblentz, a lawyer and friend for many years. “He was self-effacing, devoid of prejudice, and he cared for people. He had a desire to listen ... which a lot of people in his position do not have.” 

Hearst also felt he had sold himself short, Coblentz said. 

“I think he felt he didn’t live up to the expectations of his father ... whatever they were. I think he felt he wasn’t as smart as he should be ... which was absolutely untrue,” Coblentz said. 

Hearst’s mother, Millicent, gave birth to him and his twin brother, David, on Dec. 2, 1915, in New York City. (David Hearst, president of a family foundation, died in 1986 at age 70). 

When their father died in 1951 at age 88, he did not leave any of his five sons in charge of his media empire. Instead, the vast holdings were handed over to professional managers, and the sons became the minority on a 13-member board of trustees. 

“The running of the company was left to outsiders because his father didn’t have confidence in his sons,” Coblentz said. 

And Randolph Hearst didn’t mind the arrangement, he said, because the corporation did quite well, growing to 27 TV stations, 16 magazines, 12 daily newspapers and several cable enterprises as well as huge real estate holdings. 

Forbes estimated the privately held corporation’s 1999 revenues to be $4.4 billion. 

At the time of his death he was president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. 

“Randy Hearst shared his father’s strong vision and his abiding belief in the media business,” said Frank A. Bennack Jr., president and chief executive officer of Hearst Corp. 

In 1938 he married Catherine Wood Campbell of Atlanta. They had five daughters — Patricia, Catherine, Virginia, Anne and Victoria. They divorced in 1982. 

He was an executive for a range of Hearst newspapers, interrupting his career to serve as an Army pilot in World War II. 

In 1965 he became both chairman of the executive committee of Hearst Corp. and one of its directors. In the early 1970s he headed the Examiner and lived in Hillsborough. 

Raul Ramirez, now news director of KQED in San Francisco, remembers how Hearst hired him away from The Washington Post to be a reporter on the Examiner at a time when the SLA was publicly attacking his family. 

“I remember he pointed to his window and said, ’There is a city out there that I didn’t know existed, and we need people like you to help me see it better,”’ said Ramirez. “I saw him as a very concerned and troubled father who had heard those taped observations that were foreign to him, but in some way they resonated with him.” 

In his private life, Hearst involved himself in many civic groups, sitting on the boards of several charities. 

Educated at Harvard University, Hearst spent much of his free time at Wyntoon, the family’s sprawling estate near Mount Shasta. 

Earlier this year he bought the Vanderbilt mansion in Manalapan, Fla., for $29.87 million from Mel Simon, owner of the Indiana Pacers professional basketball team. 

Hearst’s second marriage, to Maria Scruggs, also ended in divorce. He married his third wife, Veronica de Uribe, in 1987. 

Up to the end, he remained interested in the family’s newspapers. 

“Randy called up regularly to complain about the size of the stock type in the business section or to talk about politics,” said Phil Bronstein, former executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner. “Randy clearly paid attention to what was going on in the world.” 

Along with his wife, Veronica, he is survived by his four other daughters. A funeral will be held Wednesday in New York City; he will be buried in the family plot at Colma, just south of San Francisco.