New York, Feb 29 (CNN/GNA) — Students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York will receive free tuition after a $1 billion dollar donation from a former faculty member.
Dr. Ruth Gottesman, 93, who spent 55 years as the chair of the school’s board, made the historic donation in the name of her late husband, David “Sandy” Gottesman, who was an early investor of Berkshire Hathaway and a longtime friend of Berkshire’s famed CEO Warren Buffett.
Philip Ozuah, president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, the school’s parent company, announced the “transformational gift” on Monday, saying that “this is the largest donation to any medical school in the country.”
Sandy Gottesman, who was the co-founder of New York-based investment firm First Manhattan Co., died in 2022.
The Gottesmans had long been involved in health care philanthropy. In 2010, their gift of $25 million to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine went towards creating the school’s Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine. Sandy Gottesman also served on the board of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.
“I am very thankful to my late husband, Sandy, for leaving these funds in my care, and l feel blessed to be given the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause,” said Dr. Ruth Gottesman in a news release.
Dr. Ruth Gottesman joined the medical school in 1968 and developed screening, evaluation and treatments for children with learning disabilities. In 1992, she founded the Adult Literacy Program at Einstein’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center, “the first of its kind.” She also served as the founding director of the school’s Emily Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities, which opened in 1997.
GNA/Credit: CNN