Warren Alpert, who donated $100 million to the medical school now named for him, died of heart failure Saturday morning at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, according to his nephew, Herb Kaplan. Alpert was 86.
"Mr. Alpert's philanthropy will enable the University to enhance medical education at Brown. We are grateful for Mr. Alpert's support, which will help educate generations of young physicians at the University," President Ruth Simmons said Sunday in a statement.
"He lived his life by having dedication - he had an indomitable spirit," said Kaplan, who is president of the Warren Alpert Foundation. "He was a fighter to the end."
Born in 1920 to Lithuanian immigrants Goodman and Tena Alpert, Alpert grew up in the economically depressed town of Chelsea, Mass. He joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Boston University in 1942, serving in military intelligence during World War II. Alpert was awarded the Purple Heart in 1945.
With help from the GI Bill of 1944, he enrolled in Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program and earned his master's degree in business administration in 1947.
Three years later, Alpert started his own business, a small oil marketing company with an office on Eddy Street in Providence. Warren Equities Inc. became one of the largest independent gasoline and convenience store marketers and one of the leading independent wholesale petroleum marketers in the Northeast.
Alpert founded the Warren Alpert Foundation, a philanthropic effort devoted to supporting medical research and health care, in 1986. The foundation enabled Alpert to donate $20 million to Harvard University to name a research center at its medical school and to give $15 million to Mt. Sinai.
Alpert's gift to Brown, which was announced Jan. 29, tied with a 2004 donation from liquor magnate Sidney Frank '42 as the single largest donation in Brown's history. It will be used in part to fund a new building for the Med School, bolster scientific research and med student financial aid and endow at least two new faculty positions.
