Ruth and David “Sandy” Gottesman were married for 72 years. They were both huge philanthropists, giving away tens of millions of dollars in their lifetime.
David was a top Warren Buffet investor on Wall Street. When he died in 2022, he left an estate valued at $3 billion. He gave his wife instructions to do with it as she pleased.
Ruth Gottesman was a teacher for most of her adult life at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx. She is currently the chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and serves on the board of the Montefiore Health System, the school’s affiliate hospital.
This month, it’s been revealed she donated $1 billion to the Einstein School of Medicine to cover the tuition of every student who walks through its door whose dream it was to become a doctor today for as long as the school is open.
The donation means that from August, all tuition will be free, and final-year students will be reimbursed their tuition fees for the spring term.
The school is in the Bronx, which ranks last in New York state for health outcomes and factors, according to the University of Wisconsin.
Of first-year students, 59% are women and 18% are self-described as being in a group underrepresented in medicine.
School officials said they hoped free tuition would attract a diverse pool of applicants who might not otherwise be able to study medicine.
Gottesman wanted to allow students to begin their careers not owing a fortune in student loans.
The donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough. The Bronx has a high rate of premature deaths and ranks as the unhealthiest county in New York. Over the past generation, a number of billionaires have given hundreds of millions of dollars to better-known medical schools and hospitals in Manhattan, the city’s wealthiest borough.
Dr. Gottesman said her donation would enable new doctors to begin their careers without medical school debt, which often exceeds $200,000. She also hoped it would broaden the student body to include people who could not otherwise afford to go to medical school.
Gottesman is a selfless woman. In 1992, she founded the Adult Literacy Program at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) and in 1998 helped to found the Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities.
Her husband trusted her judgment in disbursing his wealth to worthy causes. I guess it’s not that hard to trust someone after 72 years of living together.
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