Albert M. Greenfield - Philanthropy and Legacy

Philanthropy and Legacy

In the early 1950s, Greenfield donated $1 million to the University of Pennsylvania for development of a human relations center. The center was named in his honor, The Albert M. Greenfield Center for Human Relations. It was established to offer graduate and undergraduate instruction on intergroup relations, to advance knowledge in the field of group relations by fostering both basic and applied research, and to provide community service. The Center existed through the late 1960s.

In 1953, he established The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation to provide grants to a variety of local Philadelphia institutions. The Foundation has supported the Albert Monroe Greenfield Memorial Lecture in Human Relations, an annual event at the University of Pennsylvania held under the terms of the endowment of the Greenfield Professorship of Human Relations. The professorship was established in 1972. In 1992, the Foundation endowed The Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, The Philadelphia Orchestra, to recognize extraordinary young musical talent in the Greater Delaware Valley region. The Foundation has also funded the Albert M. Greenfield Digital Imaging Center at The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the digital and print Albert M. Greenfield Center for 20th-Century History at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

His philanthropic endeavors transcended religious and racial lines. He was praised for his work by such organizations as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the World Brotherhood Organization, the Urban League, and the Catholic Interracial Council. For his philanthropic work, he was bestowed with the rank of Commander of the Order of Pius IX by Pope Pius XI. He was the first Jew in America to receive such an honor.

The Albert M. Greenfield Elementary School (part of the School District of Philadelphia), located at 22nd and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, is named in his honor.

Greenfield died on January 5, 1967 at his estate, "Sugar Loaf", in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. He was survived by his third wife, the former Elizabeth Hallstrom, as well as five children (two sons and three daughters) from his first marriage, 21 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The Sugar Loaf estate remained in the hands of the Greenfield Foundation as their headquarters, and as the Albert M. Greenfield Conference Center of Temple University, until 2006 when the entire property was sold for $11 million to Chestnut Hill College.