Ruth Gottesman, 93, hopes her gift will help ease the financial burden students face and make medical school accessible to those who previously couldn’t afford it.
A billion dollars. This is the amount of the donation received by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, located in the Bronx, reported the New York Times this Monday, February 26. The generous donor is Ruth Gottesman, 93 years old and none other than a former professor at the establishment and widow of a Wall Street financier.
The former teacher notably asked that this donation be used to cover the tuition fees of all students in the future. According to the American daily, this is one of the largest charitable donations made to an educational institution in the United States and quite possibly the largest to a medical school.
Heiress of her late husband
Over the course of her career, Ruth Gottesman has studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test, and led literacy programs. Her fortune comes from her husband who died in 2022, David Gottesman, former protégé of a famous American billionaire.
“He left me, without my knowledge, a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stocks,” Ruth Gottesman told the Times, with only one instruction: “Do with it what you see fit.” The woman then immediately knew what she wanted to do with this money.
“I wanted to fund Einstein students to have free tuition,” she told the Times.
According to Ruth Gottesman, cited by the newspaper, these costs amount to more than $59,000 per year and many people finish their studies with debts often exceeding $200,000.
“Opening the way” for other students
In a video published on X (formerly Twitter), Ruth Gottesman announced the happy news to students at the Albert Einstein University of Medicine.
“I am happy to share with you that starting in August of this year, tuition will be free at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.”
The former professor declared that her donation will “open the way for many other students” and will give the chance to people who would not have had the means to apply to medical school.
According to the Times, Ruth Gottesman’s donation is notable not only because of its size, but also because it is intended for a medical facility in the Bronx, the poorest borough in the city.
In recent years, a number of billionaires have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to better-known medical schools and hospitals in Manhattan, New York’s wealthiest borough.