Albert Einstein College of Medicine Receives $1 Billion Donation, Waives Tuition for All Students
The story begins with a highly accomplished yet humble financial titan, Mr. David S. Gottesman. "Only when a whale surfaces does it get harpooned," said Gottesman in a 2013 interview at his Wall Street office. His low-key approach contrasts sharply with his longtime friend Warren Buffett.
Born on April 26, 1926, in Manhattan, Gottesman moved with his family to New Rochelle, New York, during his childhood. His father, Benjamin, was a banker.
"I was not a good student; I was more interested in making money," Gottesman said. He sold magazines door-to-door, worked in a hardware store selling beetle traps, and even hired neighborhood kids to help him. Disinterested in college, he enlisted in the military. Initially sent by the army to study engineering at Princeton University, by 19 (in 1945), he was deployed to the South Pacific during WWII. Assigned to an artillery unit, he climbed trees to lay communication lines, providing frontline updates to the rear command.
After the war, Gottesman resumed his studies, earning a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Hartford, followed by enrollment at Harvard Business School. In the summer of 1948, he met Ruth Levy, who was about to start her freshman year. In 1950, Gottesman graduated from Harvard and married Ruth. Post-marriage, he chose a lower-paying Wall Street career while most of his peers entered the higher-paying industrial sector.
In 1963, a friend suggested he meet Warren Buffett. They lunched at the Wall Street Club and bonded over golf, initiating a close collaboration that lasted decades until Gottesman's death. "Warren knew more about investing than anyone I had ever met, and I vowed to follow him closely," Gottesman wrote in a memoir shared with his family. They often met in Omaha, Buffett's base, sometimes chatting until late at night, even getting locked inside Buffett's office building once.
In 1964, Gottesman founded First Manhattan Company and became an early investor in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, serving on its board. Most of his wealth came from holding Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares.
"Wall Street history may never have seen such an outstanding stock return held for 44 years," Gottesman wrote ten years ago, estimating his shares had increased 6,000-fold.
In September 2022, at age 96, Gottesman passed away, leaving a substantial estate to his 93-year-old wife, American educator Ruth Gottesman, instructing her to "do whatever you believe is right."
After more than a year of contemplation, Dr. Ruth Gottesman decided to donate $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM). This $1 billion donation, the largest single donation ever received by any U.S. medical school, is significant for the Bronx-based institution, where most students face substantial student loan debt.
In 1968, Ruth Gottesman joined AECOM’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), developing widely used screening, evaluation, and treatment programs for learning disabilities. In 1992, she initiated an adult literacy program at CERC and, in 1998, helped establish the Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities. She is an Honorary Professor of Pediatrics (Developmental Medicine) at AECOM and serves as the Chair of AECOM's Board of Trustees.
Dr. Ruth Gottesman's generous act is more than a donation; it's an inspiration and a force for changing many lives. Her action moves medical education towards greater openness and inclusivity, opening doors for talented, ambitious students who lack financial support. This gift will be remembered in AECOM's history and will profoundly impact countless medical students' lives.
In these challenging times, education is one of the most valuable assets. Dr. Ruth Gottesman's generosity sets a shining example: regardless of age, background, or economic status, everyone has the right to pursue knowledge and dreams. Her altruism not only honors her past service in education but also embodies the ethos of doing the right thing, as Mr. Gottesman once advised. May this selfless gift, like a seed, take root in the soil of medical education, blooming into a brighter future.
Background Information
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a leading institution for medical education, basic research, and clinical research in the U.S., ranking among the top 40 in medical research and within the top 100 globally in the past five years. A study aimed at eliminating subjective indicators from the U.S. News & World Report rankings placed Einstein 13th among U.S. medical schools, putting it in the top 10%. Currently, Einstein ranks 39th out of 153 medical schools in the U.S. News & World Report.
Einstein's six main program centers are designated by the National Institutes of Health, including the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, Diabetes Center, and Brain and Neuroscience Center. During the 2014-2015 academic year, Einstein had 742 MD students, 212 PhD students, 102 students in combined MD/PhD programs, and 292 postdoctoral researchers. The main campus and clinical institutions have over 2,000 full-time faculty members. In 2014, researchers at Einstein received $157 million in NIH funding, ranking 25th among 138 medical schools in the U.S. This funding supports research in aging, intellectual developmental disorders, diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS.
Moreover, the medical school focuses on areas such as brain development research, neuroscience, cardiology, and measures to reduce and eliminate health disparities across ethnic and racial groups. Collaborating with Montefiore Medical Center, Einstein accelerates clinical and translational research for patient benefit. Additionally, Einstein runs the largest medical and dental residency and fellowship training program in the U.S., in conjunction with Jacobi Medical Center and three other hospital systems in Bronx, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Notably, Einstein was among the first medical schools to integrate clinical practice with learning, allowing first-year students to interact with patients, merging classroom knowledge with case studies. It pioneered the inclusion of bioethics as a discipline, became New York City's first private medical school to establish a family medicine department, and the first to offer an internal medicine residency program focused on women's health.
In 2024, following Gottesman's $1 billion donation, the school announced the reimbursement of current students' tuition and the permanent cessation of tuition fees.
Contact Information
Timothy Johns
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