A 93-year-old professor donates $1 billion to a medical school

Dr. Ruth Gottesman, a 93-year-old former professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, known to be the poorest borough in the five districts in New York City, donated 1 billion dollars, the largest charitable donation to date to an educational institution in the U.S and the largest to a medical school.

Starting in August 2024, Albert Einstein College of Medicine students can pursue their studies tuition-free. The average annual tuition for medical schools in the U.S. typically amounts to 59,000 dollars.

Gottesman’s donation constitutes one-third of the 3 billion dollar legacy left by her husband, David Gottesman, who passed away in 2022. Mr. Gottesman, a Jewish-American businessman, made his fortune from investing in Berkshire Hathaway, founded by the billionaire and legendary investor Warren Buffet, and led First Manhattan, a wealth management firm, on Wall Street. Having been married for 72 years since 1950, the couple dedicated their lives to numerous charitable endeavors. Earlier in 2008, they donated 25 million dollars to the medical school.

The college proposed to attach Gottesman’s name to the medical school, but she refused, saying, “Nobody needs to know.” The New York Times commended Dr. Gottesman’s decision to donate the money to a college in the Bronx, reporting that a number of billionaires have given money to better-known medical schools and hospitals in Manhattan, the city’s wealthiest borough.

With a doctoral degree in education, Dr. Gottesman was a trailblazer in the field of learning disabilities. While teaching at Einstein for 33 years, she developed new diagnostic modalities and treatments for children with learning disabilities. She also ran an adult literacy program.


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