WASHINGTON D.C. (Press Release)– At the Israel Embassy event Monday night in Washington D.C. marking Israel’s 70th Independence Day, American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) donors, Howard and Lottie Marcus, were posthumously honored among the top 10 of 70 Americans who have made a uniquely valuable contribution to Israel and its alliance with the United States.
AABGU Chief Executive Officer Doug Seserman accepted the award on behalf of Ellen Marcus, their daughter and sole beneficiary, who was unable to attend.
The Marcus legacy gift, in excess of $400 million, was donated in 2016 to AABGU to establish the Ben-Gurion University Marcus Endowment Fund, of which a small percentage is distributed annually. The gift is the largest gift given to any Israeli university, and is believed to be the largest gift to any Israeli institution.
“Both AABGU and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) owe a debt of gratitude to Howard and Lottie’s daughter, Ellen Marcus, who advised her parents to give the bulk of their estate to BGU,” says Seserman. “She is an extraordinary individual who derives satisfaction more from giving than receiving.”
Seserman also announces today that the first round of grants from the endowment has been allocated, totaling $15 million for a range of research, academic positions, buildings, and campus expansion to help develop the Negev. The grants are determined by the Marcus Endowment Advisory Committee and the BGU Grants Committee.
The vast majority of this year’s disbursements, approximately $9 million, is being appropriated for completion of the new BGU North Campus infrastructure. The remainder of funds is being allocated for various University initiatives, including water and other research and development areas, faculty recruitment and retention, and Centers of Excellence.
“My parents were passionate about Ben-Gurion University and the role it plays in the future of the Negev and the State of Israel,” says Ellen Marcus. “These annual grants help support a wide range of initiatives and especially their interest in water research.” Marcus, who lives in Austin, Texas, has served as a vice chair of BGU’s board of governors since 2006, is an AABGU board vice president and is Austin chair of AABGU’s Greater Texas Region.
Howard and Lottie Marcus both fled Nazi Germany in the early 1930s and met in New York in 1942. He built a dental practice in Manhattan. Lottie worked at a Wall Street firm as head of the secretarial pool.Through the Wall Street Ski Club, she became friends with Benjamin Graham, known as the “father of value investing.”
In the early 1960s, Graham introduced the couple to his star graduate student in his class at Columbia University Business School, predicting that the young man’s new business would be very successful. That student was Warren Buffet, and the Marcuses were among Buffet’s first investors.
Buffet says, “We hit it off and they joined my investment partnership. Knowing them, it comes as no surprise that they elected to use their financial success to enhance the lives of thousands of Israeli young people.”
The Marcuses began supporting BGU in the late 1990s, funding a laboratory and scholarships in the fields of water, desalination and desert studies — research they hoped would support future peace in the region. The BGU Marcus Family Campus in Beer-Sheva is named in their honor in appreciation of the family’s magnanimous generosity.
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Preceding provided by the American Friends of Ben-Gurion University
Howard and Lottie Marcus resided in Rancho Bernardo, North County, from 1979 until their deaths in 2014 and 2015, respectively.