George Gund (philanthropist)
Encyclopedia
George Gund II was an American banker, business executive, and real estate investor who lived in Cleveland, Ohio
in the early and middle part of the 20th century. A philanthropist for most of his life, he established The George Gund Foundation
in 1952 and endowed it with most of his $600 million fortune at his death.
in the independent country of the Grand Duchy of Baden
(now part of Germany
). The family emigrated to the United States in 1848 and settled in Illinois, but in 1854 moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin
. There his grandfather founded the John Gund Brewery. His father, George Frederick Gund, was born in LaCrosse in 1856 and later managed the Gund Brewery. His father moved to Seattle, Washington, founded the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, became a director of two banks, and then returned to the Midwest to move his family to Cleveland in 1897. His father bought the Jacob Mall Brewing Company, renamed it the Gund Brewing Company, and made a large fortune investing in banking, mining, and real estate.
George Gund, Jr. (as he was then known) was born to George Frederick and Anna Louise (Metzger) Gund on April 13, 1888. He was a student at the University School of Cleveland
from 1897 to 1905. He entered Harvard University
, and received his A.B.
in 1909. Toward the end of his Harvard education, he simultaneously enrolled in the Harvard Business School
, and graduated in the school's first class in 1909. He moved to Seattle and took a job as a clerk with the Seattle First National Bank, but moved back to Cleveland when his father died in 1916. But when World War I broke out, he enlisted in the United States Army
and served in the Military Intelligence Division
.
in 1920, Gund was forced to close his father's brewery in Cleveland. But during the war, Kaffee HAG
, a German corporation, was stripped of its assets in the United States. Among its subsidiaries was Sanka
, the company which manufactured decaffeinated coffee. Gund purchased Sanka in 1919, then sold it to Kellog's
in 1927 for $10 million in stock. Gund also took over management of the Gund Realty Company in Cleveland and invested his money in numerous ventures. During the depths of the Great Depression, he purchased large amounts of stock at very low prices.
Gund studied animal husbandry
at Iowa State University
from 1922 to 1923. He made many trips to California and Nevada, often staying there for many months at a time, and became interested in a possible political career in Nevada. He purchased a large cattle ranch in Nevada, but on May 23, 1936, he married Jessica Laidlaw Roesler. She was the granddaughter of Henry Bedell Laidlaw, the founder of one of the first investment banking houses in New York City, Laidlaw & Company. Gund purchased a large home in Beachwood
, a wealthy suburb of Cleveland, and the couple had six children: George III, Agnes, Gordon, Graham, Geoffrey, and Louise.
In 1937, Gund was elected a director of the Cleveland Trust Company (a savings bank established in 1896), and was named president in 1941. He was made chairman of the board of trustees in 1962. Under Gund's leadership, by 1967 the bank had more than $2 billion in assets, making it the 18th largest bank in the United States. Gund also served on the board of directors of another 30 national and multinational corporations. But despite the urban nature of his work, Gund never lost his affection for the Old West. He used his income to collect a large number of works of art which depicted the American West, including works by Albert Bierstadt
, Frederic Remington
, and Charles Marion Russell
.
Jessica Gund died in 1954 at the age of 50.
George Gund died of leukemia
at the Cleveland Clinic
on November 15, 1966. He was interred at Lake View Cemetery
in Cleveland.
; Harvard University
, where he endowed two professorships; Kenyon College
; and Trinity Cathedral
, an Episcopal
church in Cleveland. In 1952, Gund established The George Gund Foundation. His will bequeathed the bulk of his $600 million fortune to the foundation.
Gund served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, was a trustee of Kenyon College, and was a member of the advisory lay board of directors of John Carroll University
. He also served two terms on the Advisory Council of the Fourth Federal Reserve District in the mid-1950s.
A number of buildings and places are named for Gund, due to his philanthropic generosity. Among these are: George Gund Hall at Harvard University, Gund Hall at Case Western Reserve University School of Law
, and Gund Theater at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
.
formerly owned the Cleveland Cavaliers
professional basketball team and the San Jose Sharks
and Minnesota North Stars
professional ice hockey teams.
In 1991, Agnes Gund
was named president of the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City. She stepped down in 2002.
Graham Gund
is the founder and owner of Graham Gund Architects, an architectural design firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. An award-winning architect and noted art collector, he has designed numerous important buildings and residences, including the Shakespeare Theatre Company
's Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, D.C., and overseen numerous redevelopment projects, such as the refurbishment of historic Faneuil Hall
. He is also a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
.
Geoffrey Gund teaches at the Dalton School in New York City and is president of The George Gund Foundation.
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
in the early and middle part of the 20th century. A philanthropist for most of his life, he established The George Gund Foundation
The George Gund Foundation
The George Gund Foundation was established in 1952 and provides grants in the areas of education, human services, economic and community development, the environment and the arts...
in 1952 and endowed it with most of his $600 million fortune at his death.
Early life
Gund's grandfather, Johann Gund, was born in 1830 in Brühl am RheinBrühl (Baden)
Brühl is a municipality in the Rhein-Neckar district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The former fishing village along the Rhine has become a satellite of a growing Mannheim. Many of the residents of Brühl work in Mannheim. Brühl is known as the hometown of former tennis player Steffi...
in the independent country of the Grand Duchy of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
(now part of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
). The family emigrated to the United States in 1848 and settled in Illinois, but in 1854 moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The 2011 Census Bureau estimates the city had a population of 52,485...
. There his grandfather founded the John Gund Brewery. His father, George Frederick Gund, was born in LaCrosse in 1856 and later managed the Gund Brewery. His father moved to Seattle, Washington, founded the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, became a director of two banks, and then returned to the Midwest to move his family to Cleveland in 1897. His father bought the Jacob Mall Brewing Company, renamed it the Gund Brewing Company, and made a large fortune investing in banking, mining, and real estate.
George Gund, Jr. (as he was then known) was born to George Frederick and Anna Louise (Metzger) Gund on April 13, 1888. He was a student at the University School of Cleveland
University School
University School, commonly referred to as US, is an all-boys K - 12 school with two campus locations in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio area...
from 1897 to 1905. He entered Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and received his A.B.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1909. Toward the end of his Harvard education, he simultaneously enrolled in the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
, and graduated in the school's first class in 1909. He moved to Seattle and took a job as a clerk with the Seattle First National Bank, but moved back to Cleveland when his father died in 1916. But when World War I broke out, he enlisted in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and served in the Military Intelligence Division
Military Intelligence Division
The Military Intelligence Division was a military intelligence branch of the United States Army, established in 1885. It was the first standing intelligence agency of the Army; the Union Army had had a Bureau of Military Information, but that had reported to the Commanding General for less than a...
.
Business career and death
After the start of prohibition in the United StatesProhibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
in 1920, Gund was forced to close his father's brewery in Cleveland. But during the war, Kaffee HAG
Café HAG
Café HAG is a worldwide brand of decaffeinated coffee owned by U.S. multinational Kraft Foods.The brand originated in Bremen in Germany in 1906 and took its name from the company title Kaffee Handels-Aktien-Gesellschaft, or Kaffee HAG for short....
, a German corporation, was stripped of its assets in the United States. Among its subsidiaries was Sanka
Sanka
Sanka is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee, sold around the world, and was one of the earliest decaffeinated varieties. Sanka is distributed in the United States by Kraft Foods.-History:...
, the company which manufactured decaffeinated coffee. Gund purchased Sanka in 1919, then sold it to Kellog's
Kellogg Company
Kellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...
in 1927 for $10 million in stock. Gund also took over management of the Gund Realty Company in Cleveland and invested his money in numerous ventures. During the depths of the Great Depression, he purchased large amounts of stock at very low prices.
Gund studied animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
at Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
from 1922 to 1923. He made many trips to California and Nevada, often staying there for many months at a time, and became interested in a possible political career in Nevada. He purchased a large cattle ranch in Nevada, but on May 23, 1936, he married Jessica Laidlaw Roesler. She was the granddaughter of Henry Bedell Laidlaw, the founder of one of the first investment banking houses in New York City, Laidlaw & Company. Gund purchased a large home in Beachwood
Beachwood, Ohio
-External links:* *...
, a wealthy suburb of Cleveland, and the couple had six children: George III, Agnes, Gordon, Graham, Geoffrey, and Louise.
In 1937, Gund was elected a director of the Cleveland Trust Company (a savings bank established in 1896), and was named president in 1941. He was made chairman of the board of trustees in 1962. Under Gund's leadership, by 1967 the bank had more than $2 billion in assets, making it the 18th largest bank in the United States. Gund also served on the board of directors of another 30 national and multinational corporations. But despite the urban nature of his work, Gund never lost his affection for the Old West. He used his income to collect a large number of works of art which depicted the American West, including works by Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion...
, Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, American Indians, and the U. S...
, and Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell , also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an artist of the Old American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States, in addition to bronze sculptures...
.
Jessica Gund died in 1954 at the age of 50.
George Gund died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
at the Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Cleveland Clinic is currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report...
on November 15, 1966. He was interred at Lake View Cemetery
Lake View Cemetery
Lake View Cemetery is located on the east side of the City of Cleveland, Ohio, along the East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights borders. There are over 104,000 people buried at Lake View, with more than 700 burials each year. There are remaining for future development. Known locally as "Cleveland's...
in Cleveland.
Philanthropic work and memorials
Gund became a frequent giver of large charitable gifts beginning in 1937. During his lifetime, he was a generous contributor to the Cleveland Institute of ArtCleveland Institute of Art
The Cleveland Institute of Art is a private college of art and design located in University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. From 1891 until 1948 it was named Cleveland School of Art. During the Great Depression the school...
; Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he endowed two professorships; Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
; and Trinity Cathedral
Trinity Cathedral (Cleveland, Ohio)
Trinity Cathedral is a historic church on Euclid Avenue at East 22nd Street in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.It was built in 1901 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.-External links:...
, an Episcopal
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
church in Cleveland. In 1952, Gund established The George Gund Foundation. His will bequeathed the bulk of his $600 million fortune to the foundation.
Gund served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, was a trustee of Kenyon College, and was a member of the advisory lay board of directors of John Carroll University
John Carroll University
John Carroll University is a private, co-educational Jesuit Catholic university in University Heights, Ohio, United States, a suburb of Cleveland. The university was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus as Saint Ignatius College.The university was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus, as...
. He also served two terms on the Advisory Council of the Fourth Federal Reserve District in the mid-1950s.
A number of buildings and places are named for Gund, due to his philanthropic generosity. Among these are: George Gund Hall at Harvard University, Gund Hall at Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Case Western Reserve University Franklin Thomas Backus School of Law is the law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1892, making it one of the oldest law schools in the country. It was one of the first schools accredited by the American Bar Association and was...
, and Gund Theater at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is associated with the University of California at Berkeley. The director is Lawrence Rinder who was appointed in 2008.-Collection:...
.
Descendants
George Gund III and Gordon GundGordon Gund
Gordon Gund is an United States businessman and professional sports owner. He is the CEO of Gund Investment Corporation. He is the former co-owner of the San Jose Sharks and former principal owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and is currently a minority owner of the Cavaliers...
formerly owned the Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They began playing in the National Basketball Association in 1970 as an expansion team...
professional basketball team and the San Jose Sharks
San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California, United States. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
and Minnesota North Stars
Minnesota North Stars
The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, and the team's colors for most of its history were green, yellow, gold and white...
professional ice hockey teams.
In 1991, Agnes Gund
Agnes Gund
Agnes Gund , is an American philanthropist, art patron and collector, and advocate for arts education. She is founding trustee of the Agnes Gund Foundation and President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and Chairman of its International Council. She is also Chairman of MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art...
was named president of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City. She stepped down in 2002.
Graham Gund
Graham Gund
Graham de Conde Gund is an American architect and the president of the Gund Partnership, an American architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and founded by Gund in 1971...
is the founder and owner of Graham Gund Architects, an architectural design firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. An award-winning architect and noted art collector, he has designed numerous important buildings and residences, including the Shakespeare Theatre Company
Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. Their self professed mission "is to present classic theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their...
's Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, D.C., and overseen numerous redevelopment projects, such as the refurbishment of historic Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall , located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of...
. He is also a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
.
Geoffrey Gund teaches at the Dalton School in New York City and is president of The George Gund Foundation.