He spent $1 billion for the poor: Who is Professor Dr Ruth Gottesman?

“He left me a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway shares without me knowing,” says Dr. Gottesman. The advice given by the late David Gottesman, a Wall Street financier, was simple: “Do what you think is right with it.”

It was very difficult to decide, and at first, Gottesman did not know what to do with this huge inheritance. However, after her children encouraged her, she made a decision. She would donate all of the money to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York's poorest area.

"I wanted to raise funds so medical students could receive free education," Dr Gottesman told the New York Times. “There was enough money to make it happen.”

Ruth Levy Gottesman (née Levy, born 1930) is an American educator. Gottesman is the chair of the board of trustees of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) in the Bronx, New York, and a long-time professor there. In February 2024, she donated $1 billion to AECOM to ensure that tuition would be free in perpetuity to all future students. It is the largest gift ever made to any medical school in the country.

Dr. Gottesman donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and directed that the money be used to pay for students' education. However, there was one condition: The name of the school would not change. (The faculty bears the name of the famous physicist Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity in 1955.)

This is one of the largest donations to an educational institution in the United States and quite possibly the largest donation to a medical school.

Dr. Gottesman, a clinical professor of pediatrics, began her career at the university in 1968, according to the school's press release. She has been on the school's board of trustees for a long time and currently serves as president. In fact, she did not want to reveal his name when making the donation and said, "No one needs to know." However, her colleagues insisted, saying that people could take her as an example.

Nearly half of Albert Einstein College of Medicine's first-year medical students are New Yorkers, and nearly 60 percent are women. Approximately 48 percent of current medical students are white, 29 percent are Asian, 11 percent are Hispanic and 5 percent are Black.

Tuition is approximately $60,000 a year, and most students graduate with a large debt load. According to the New York Times, nearly half of its students face more than $200,000 in debt after graduation.

The Bronx has a high premature death rate and is the unhealthiest borough in New York. The donation draws attention not only for its surprising size but also for the fact that it goes to a healthcare institution in the Bronx, the city's poorest borough.

Dr. Gottesman has interviewed hundreds of prospective medical students over the years. “We have great medical students, and this money will pave the way for many people who are financially disadvantaged,” she says. She hopes her donation will enable students to start their careers without the burden of debt and enable more prospective doctors to apply to faculty.