Posted on 01/16/19
Philadelphia, PA - Raymond Perelman, a businessman who built a fortune buying and selling factories and became one of the Philadelphia region’s greatest philanthropists, has died. He was 101.
He died Monday night, his son Ronald Perelman said in a statement.
In 2011, Perelman donated $225 million to the University of Pennsylvania medical school, which was renamed the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine. The money sped up research, increased student aid and helped recruit faculty members, Penn has said.
Other gifts include $15 million to what is now the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building; $6 million to the Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University; $5 million for the Raymond G. Perelman Plaza at Drexel; and $5 million for the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
“All successful people are risk takers. And I always wanted to be successful,” Perelman told The Philadelphia Inquirer after donating to the Philadelphia Art Museum, which opened the building named for the Perelmans in 2007.
“He just felt he had to do these things. It’s a fire in his belly,” added his wife, Ruth, who died in 2011 after 70 years of marriage.
Perelman was born Aug. 22, 1917, and grew up in Philadelphia.