Ruth Gottesman, professor who donated $1 billion to pay medical student tuition at New York school

When Professor Emerita Ruth Gottesman announced this Monday what she had donated to the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, students jumped from their seats and erupted in applause and cheers.

The faculty, located in one of the city’s poorest districts, will serve to permanently pay the US$1 billion the 93-year-old Gottesman gave to students’ university fees, which amount to US$59,000 a year.

It is one of the largest donations ever made to a US university and the largest donation to a medical school.

Students in their final year will be refunded their final quarter’s tuition, and beginning in August, all students, including currently enrolled students, will receive free tuition.

Ruth Gottesman, who today is part of the university’s board of directors, has been associated with Albert Einstein for more than 50 years.

With a PhD in Education from Columbia University, the professor joined the Albert Einstein Center for Child Evaluation and Rehabilitation in 1968.

There, at a time when learning disabilities were often unrecognized and misdiagnosed, Developed widely used screening, assessment and treatment methods that have helped thousands of children.

But where does the fortune that has given such a generous gift come from?

The benefactor is also the widow of David “Sandy” Gottesman, an early investor in Warren Buffett’s multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.

Sandy, to whom Ruth was married for 72 years, died in September 2022 aged 96.

“He gave up his entire portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway shares, without informing me,” the professor told the newspaper. The New York Times. The instructions were very simple: “Do what you think is right.”

Although he never knew what his wife ultimately decided to do with the fortune, it is likely that she would have approved of it.

Throughout his life, the investor, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes at $3 billion at the time of his death, donated $330 million to charity.

Ruth Gottesman, who started the Adult Literacy Program at CERC in 1992, the first of its kind and still in operation, and was appointed the founding director of the Emily Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities in 1998, she had years of disdain. was spent doing What to do with the money and her children encouraged her not to let time pass.

Over the years, the professor interviewed hundreds of prospective students and He knew first hand the major difficulty they faced: High university fees, which became an impossible hurdle to overcome for many and become a huge burden for those who opt for university loans.

More than half of students owe more than $200,000 when they graduate, according to school statistics.

In a statement, the university’s dean, Yaron Yomer, said Gottesman’s donation is “transformational” for the school, and “radically revolutionizes our ability to continue to attract students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it.”

A generous gift “will liberate and inspire our students, allowing them to pursue projects and ideas that would otherwise be restricted”Yomer added.

Gottesman hopes the donation will open the school to many students “whose financial situation is such that they wouldn’t even consider going to medical school,” he said. New York Times.

About half of Einstein’s first-year students are from New York, and about 60% are women. Statistics released by the school show that about 48% of its students are white, 29% Asian, 11% Hispanic and 5% black.

Unlike other donors, who want to associate their name with a charitable cause and leave it that way for posterity, Ruth Gottesman Demanded that the name of the school should not be changedwhich opened in 1955 and was named in honor of the Nobel laureate who developed the Theory of Relativity.

At first, he didn’t want to associate his name with the donation, said Philip Ozuah, president of Montefiore Einstein, the institution that owns both the medical school and the Montefiori Health System, a network of 14 hospitals located in its area. The Bronx.

She was finally convinced Your story can inspire others.

According to Gottesman, doctors who trained at Einstein “continue to provide excellent medical care to communities here in the Bronx and around the world.”

More than 100 students who enter the Albert Einstein School of Medicine each year “leave as superbly trained scientists and expert, compassionate physicians, with experience discovering new ways to prevent disease and provide the best medical care to diverse communities.” Bronx and around the world,” he added in a statement

The emeritus professor said she was deeply grateful to her late husband for leaving these funds in his care and “for having the great privilege of donating this to such a worthy cause.”

A larger donation will allow To fund the tuition of Einstein students in perpetuity.

What would her husband have thought of the generous gift?

“I hope he’s smiling and not frowning,” he said. “He gave me the opportunity to do this and I think he will be happy, I hope.”

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