93-Year-Old Widow Donates Late Husband’s $1 Billion to Fund Medical School Tuition in NYC’s Poorest Borough

93-Year-Old Widow Donates Late Husband’s $1 Billion to Cover Medical School Tuition in NYC’s Poorest Borough

A billion-dollar boost to the future of healthcare in New York City has just been granted. The 93-year-old philanthropist Ruth Gottesman gave a startling amount to a Bronx medical school. The touching backstory of this gift, however, elevates it to even greater heights.

The richest country in the world, the United States, is struggling with a serious medical deficit, especially in basic care.
A contributing factor in this scarcity is the crippling debt associated with medical school, which discourages many would-be physicians from pursuing their ideal jobs.

But a recent act of amazing kindness from Ruth Gottesman, ninety-three, has the potential to change everything.

Dr. Gottesman gave the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, an astounding $1 billion donation. All next medical students at Einstein will graduate debt-free thanks to this unprecedented gift. Dr. Gottesman continued: “We have terrific medical students, but this will open it up for many other students whose economic status is such that they wouldn’t even think about going to medical school.”

Dr. Gottesman, the current chair of the board of trustees and a former professor at Einstein, inherited the wealth from her late husband, David Gottesman.
David, a prominent Wall Street financier, was regarded as Warren Buffett’s protégé and was one of the first investors in the company Buffett founded, Berkshire Hathaway.
In the end, this prudent investment supplied the funds necessary to support Dr. Gottesman’s revolutionary contributions to healthcare and education.
Beyond this most recent donation, Dr. Gottesman’s commitment to healthcare and education is extensive.

She was a professor of pediatrics for almost 55 years before retiring. She promoted programs including literacy assessments and the creation of a screening test for learning difficulties throughout her time in office.
She was aware of the financial obstacles that applicants to medical schools must overcome, so she saw her gift as a way to help students from less affluent families who might not have otherwise thought about pursuing a career in medicine.

Einstein’s location is especially important. Situated in the Bronx, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in New York City, the medical school is centrally located in an area that is acutely short on doctors.
Dr. Gottesman’s goals go beyond debt eradication. Her goal is to encourage upcoming graduates to work in places where access to healthcare is scarce.
By 2034, experts project a startling shortage of more than 124,000 doctors in the United States. Over the next few years, hundreds of new medical professionals could graduate thanks to Dr. Gottesman’s revolutionary donation, greatly reducing this shortfall.

Dr. Gottesman’s personal friendship with Dr. Philip Ozuah, the CEO of Montefiore Medical Center and overseer of Einstein College, played a role in her choice to contribute this significant amount.
During their initial flight to West Palm Beach, Florida, in early 2020, they spent many hours together. They talked about their early lives and their conversations flowed.
Dr. Ozuah described his experiences in Nigeria, and Dr. Gottesman recalled his upbringing in Baltimore.

Their careers and educational backgrounds were what they shared. They both worked at the same Bronx institution and hold doctorates in education.
Neither of them realized that they would soon cross paths again as their plane landed and they left the airport.
They became closer buddies in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Ozuah visited the Gottesmans’ home every day throughout the epidemic since David Gottesman had become infected.

That was the development of the friendship, Dr. Ozuah said. “I spent probably every day for about three weeks, visiting them in Rye.”
Dr. Gottesman was recruited to lead the medical school’s board of trustees by Dr. Ozuah around three years ago. Inspired by the legend of the lion and the mouse, she agreed despite her advanced age.
She revealed that the mouse said to the lion, “Maybe someday I’ll be helpful to you,” after the lion spared his life. She recounted Dr. Ozuah’s response as she clarified that the lion had laughed at the mouse, saying, “But Phil didn’t go ‘ha, ha, ha.'”
At the age of 96, David Gottesman passed away in 2022, leaving Ruth in possession of a sizeable portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock. She recalled: “He left me, unbeknownst to me, a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock.”

Nonetheless, he did leave Ruth with a straightforward directive. He urged her to follow her instincts and do what she felt was right.
Ruth was initially overwhelmed and took some time to go through her alternatives. Her children urged her not to put off making a decision too long.
Ruth now realized what she needed to do. She said: “I wanted to fund students at Einstein so that they would receive free tuition.”
Although the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a highly esteemed establishment, the expense of attending can be a substantial obstacle. At present, the cost of tuition surpasses $59,000 per year, which results in numerous graduates having debt over $200,000.

The financial pressure graduates face frequently sways them from choosing primary care, which is vital for underprivileged areas, in favor of higher-paying specializations.
Currently, about half of Einstein’s first-year medical students are from New York, and a sizable percentage of them are female.
Approximately 48% of the current medical students at Einstein are Caucasian, 29% Asian, 11% Hispanic, and 5% Black.
Dr. Gottesman hopes that by removing the debt load, next graduates will be able to follow their interests and give back to the communities that most need it.

Dr. Gottesman said, “That’s what makes me very happy about this gift.” “I have the opportunity not just to help Phil, but to help Montefiore and Einstein in a transformative way – and I’m just so proud and so humbled – both – that I could do it.”
Dr. Gottesman thought her late spouse would approve of the choice she had made. Admitting that he was the one who had given her this enormous chance, she hoped his knowledge of what she had done with the money he left would bring him happiness. She responded: “I hope he’s smiling and not frowning.”
But when it came time to give the donation a name, Dr. Gottesman objected to having her name listed. She declared, “Nobody needs to know.”
She was first hesitant to make her name public, but Dr. Ozuah persuaded her that her experience could serve as an example for others. He pointed out that although a lot of donations result in namesake institutions being changed, Gottesman insisted on the college keeping its original name in honor of the great physicist Albert Einstein.

The $1 billion gift made by Ruth Gottesman to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine would permanently change the nature of medical education in the Bronx.
She has made medical school more accessible to innumerable would-be doctors who otherwise might not have been able to pay for such an education by removing the financial barriers.

In addition to paying tribute to her spouse, her gift establishes a standard for charity that targets structural injustices in healthcare and education.
Thanks to Ruth Gottesman’s vision and persistent generosity, the Bronx, with all of its obstacles, now has a tremendous weapon to improve its health results.