Morton Mandel (P’73, H’89) one of the university’s largest donors, died on Oct. 16 at age 98.
Mandel and his two brothers used $900 to launch an auto-parts distributor, Premier Industrial Corp., in Cleveland in 1940. They sold it 56 years later for $2.8 billion, according to the Druckers Institute website. The three brothers later created the Mandel Foundation. The Mandel brothers said that “the Hallmark of our philanthropy is our commitment to invest in people with the values, ability and passion to change the world.” The Mandel foundation committed $22.5 million in 2007 to build The Mandel Center for the Humanities, according to the Brandeis website.
“His impact on Brandeis is literally all around us: The foundation that he established along with his brothers Jack and Joseph funded the creation of the Mandel Center for the Humanities, the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, three endowed faculty chairs, and numerous student fellowships,” said President Ron Liebowitz in an email to the Brandeis community on Oct. 21. “In all that he gave to us and to many other organizations and causes, he championed the same value and promise that drives us as Brandeisians—to use our skills, talents, and resources to improve the world.”
“Described as having come at a critical time, when the humanities are under increasing duress in a culture dominated by the hard sciences and the valuation of empirical data, the Mandel Foundation’s gift reflects the belief that society must support the liberal arts tradition, and that for education to be truly complete, it must be broadly constructed on a solid humanities foundation,” said the website.
Mandel is survived by his wife, Barbara (P’73, H’19), his children, Amy ’73, Thom and Stacy, according to Liebowitz’s email.
According to former Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz in the Cleveland Jewish News, he worked with Mandel when he was first considering donating to Brandeis. Mandel wanted to “transform Jewish education and strengthen Jewish identity in the United States.” In 2009, Reinharz announced his resignation from Brandeis after 17 years, and became president of the Mandel foundation.
“But in our last conversation, he said please promise that everybody is going to feel comfortable, is going to feel good about the building. Whatever you can do to make that happen, don’t spare any money. And that was Mort,” said Reinharz in the Cleveland Jewish News. “I mean he cared about the people who worked for him. He was demanding. He wanted to make sure that things were done at the highest level. He always wanted to raise the bar. But it was very important to him that people who worked in his business also in the businesses in Israel also in the foundation felt good about working at Mandel.”
Peter Drucker, one of the most widely-known and influential thinkers on management, according to the British Library, named Mandel as one of three impressive CEOs alongside Jack Welch and Andy Grove.
