As announced yesterday, a consortium of the local moneyed class has pulled out their checkbooks and stopped the Wicked Witch of Walmart from getting her flying monkey paws on our Eakins masterpiece. Maybe next time we can rally $60 million in a coupla weeks to, say, build a new school or put some new books in the Public Library or something. Still, let us applaud the following:
Leonore Annenberg ($10 million to the Gross Clinic effort) is the widow of Walter Annenberg, the
publisher and U.S. ambassador to Britain. She is the president, chairman, and sole director of the Annenberg Foundation, with $2.5 billion in assets. She sits on the Art Museum board.
Joseph and Jeanette Neubauer ($3 million through the Neubauer Family Foundation) recently gave $10 million to the Philadelphia Orchestra and $10 million to the University of Chicago. He is chairman and chief executive officer of Aramark Corp., and she was vice president of corporate communications at Time Warner Inc. in New York when they were married in 1996. Jeanette Neubauer is on the Art Museum board.
H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest ($3 million) sits on the boards of a remarkable number of cultural organizations. He is chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and of Curtis Institute of Music, and on the board of Columbia University. He made his multibillion-dollar fortune in the cable TV industry.
The Pew Charitable Trusts ($3 million) is headed by president Rebecca W. Rimel and is Philadelphia’s largest foundation, with $5.1 billion in assets.
Anonymous ($1 million). The only other gift over $1 million is from an anonymous donor, according to a Pew spokeswoman.
INQUIRER:“Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence.”