In February 2024, Ruth Gottesman donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she served as a faculty member. Her gift will cover tuition, in perpetuity, for students at this Bronx medical school.
The Bronx is the poorest and unhealthiest county in New York State. Ruth Gottesman’s gift may make it financially feasible for Einstein students to forsake Park Avenue plastic surgery practices for primary care in the Bronx.
Her donation is the product of long-term investing. In 1978, Ruth Gottesman’s husband exchanged proceeds from the sale of an unsuccessful department store for shares in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. These shares have since returned more than 400,000%, transforming $1 into $4,000. Over that period, the U.S. stock market returned 18,000%, transforming $1 into $180.
Investing as a social good
The Berkshire gains are astounding. But these gains are subordinate to the most interesting theme in the Gottesman story: investing as a social good.
Growing up, I didn’t know any investors. My conception of an investor was J.R. from the 1980s television show Dallas or Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. They invested to hurt people. When I joined my first workplace retirement plan, I began to see investing differently.
Investing was key to a secure financial future. And if I was fortunate, investing could help me do more than pay my retirement bills. I might be able to help the next generations of my family. I might be able to help the institutions that had played an important part in my life.
The Gottesman inspiration
I was born at Einstein, a cab ride from my parents’ Grand Concourse apartment. After the nurses took my mother to the delivery room, my father repaired to the cafeteria for a quick breakfast. “Bacon and eggs.” The counterman wagged his finger. “No bacon at Einstein.” The kitchen was Kosher. But my parents never ate better than at Einstein.
I don’t plan to donate to Einstein. Ruth Gottesman has me, and every other Bronx-born human, covered. But her story reminds me that if we’re lucky enough to be able to cover our expenses, save for retirement, and set aside something extra, investing gives us the power to do a lot of good.
–A. Clarke