It is always heartening when an individual takes an unusual, nay, monumental, step to beautify the lives of others. Like Ruth Gottesman did recently when she donated a whopping $1billion to the Albert Eistein College of Medicine, a place where she once worked, (in the department of Paediatrics), as a professor. The money takes care of tuition fees for the students.
She was, as lecturer, and is, as member board of trustees, up-close with the students and had seen first hand the struggle a lot of them went through with paying up the fees estimated by Forbes to be about $59,000 per year (about N88.5m). A four-year programme would therefore gulp about $236,000. Many students are so burdened with thoughts about how to pay the fees that it becomes their main worry rather than their actual studies. The resort to student loans, while a temporary relief, leaves them with the huge burden of payback, something which could end up taking the better part of their working years to clear up.
The money Ruth donated was essentially made by her husband, David Gottesman, a billionaire investor who was worth about $3 billion at the time of his death. While alive, he had personally made donations of $330 million to various charitable causes, and before passing on, had instructed his wife, who is all of 93, to “do whatever you think is right with it”, referring to the $3billlion he was leaving behind.
Dr Ruth Gottesman has, by this action, shown herself a good steward of the wealth left her by her husband – who was both an investor and later board member of Berkshire Hathaway.
Forbes quotes the beneficiary school as saying “This is the largest donation made to any medical school in the country”. And they should know.
A gift, especially such a big one, to the furtherance of the endeavours of young people is a gift that keeps on giving to the human race.
