[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 145 (Monday, September 18, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1795-E1796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        SPECIAL SALUTE TO MORT MANDEL, CLEVELAND PHILANTHROPIST

                                 ______


                           HON. LOUIS STOKES

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 18, 1995

  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an 
outstanding philanthropist of my congressional district. Mort Mandel is 
the chairman and CEO of Premier Industrial Corp. and has spent his life 
not just donating finances, but also finding innovative ways to improve 
the Cleveland area and the world. I want to share with my colleagues 
some of the contributions of this outstanding individual.
  Foundations established by Mort Mandel and his family distribute 
grants for management training, neighborhood renewal, the arts, and 
health care. Mr. Mandel's Premier Industrial Corp. created a non-profit 
agency for improvement of the neighborhood in which it operates, and 
created a school for non-profit management at Case Western Reserve 
University. Mr. Mandel has also given extensively to the United Way, 
and has contributed to the creation of the Mandel School of Applied 
Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
  Mort Mandel has for a number of years been a strong supporter and 
financial contributor to the 11th Congressional District's Annual 
Christmas Party for poor residents of my district. These are people who 
would have no Christmas for themselves and their children if it were 
not for philanthropists such as Mort Mandel.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to salute Mort Mandel today. Mort Mandel has 
given his time, ideas, and funding to creative philanthropy. He has 
used his success to increase opportunities for people's advancement and 
to implement neighborhood improvement. I ask my colleagues to join me 
in paying tribute to this exceptional individual.

             Giving Lives of Two Cleveland Philanthropists

                       (By Janet Beighle French)

       Why people give has long intrigued those responsible for 
     garnering support for privately funded organizations.
       The lives of two Cleveland philanthropists, one present, 
     one past, provide some answers. And, as is typical in 
     Cleveland, their gifts were not only of money, but of time, 
     too.


                          The Mandel tradition

       ``I want to light another candle or 10, maybe many candles, 
     to help eliminate the nightmares around us,'' said Mort 
     Mandel, chairman and CEO of Premier Industrial Corp.
       Mandel's parents, Sam and Rose, set the example.
       ``They were not wealthy, but they always extended helping 
     hands to others,'' said Mandel. ``When they could hardly pay 
     the rent, mother would squirrel away $11 for someone, perhaps 
     for a wedding dress, a doctor bill, a refrigerator or stove.
       ``By the time I was 10 years old, I had internalized a 
     sense that [compassionate, personal giving] was an obligation 
     and an opportunity to help,'' said Mandel. ``My brothers did, 
     too. As we could, we began giving away money.''
       Along the way, their Premier Industrial Corp. became very 
     successful.
       Now, said Mandel, he uses that ability, giving 
     systematically and effectively to stimulate new ideas that 
     will help heal the world.
       He and older brothers Jack and Joseph have established a 
     foundation for each family, three private and one corporate, 
     with total assets estimated in 1991 to be more than $160 
     million. That year, the four foundations distributed more 
     than $2.5 million in grants.
       Management training, neighborhood renewal, the arts and 
     health care were among major beneficiaries. The Mandels also 
     have given generously to Jewish causes; Mort Mandel is a past 
     president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.
       In 1993, the brothers hired Richard Shatten away from 
     Cleveland Tomorrow (itself foundation-inspired) to operate 
     their foundations. At the time, Mort Mandel said the brothers 
     intended to leave to charity a ``very large'' portion of 
     their combined fortunes, then worth about $1.5 billion. The 
     result could be a foundation that would join the Cleveland 
     and Gund foundations as a major force in Cleveland 
     philanthropy.
       ``We are more pro-active than other foundations,'' said 
     Mandel. ``We use our brains, contacts and money to improve, 
     change, fill a vacuum. We work very hard at it and put in 
     time.''
       Premier is located in the Midtown Corridor, on Cleveland's 
     near East Side. It created a nonprofit agency to help improve 
     the neighborhood, which Mandel cites as among his top 
     accomplishments. ``It's now an umbrella agency, called 
     Neighborhood Progress Inc. The Cleveland and Gund Foundations 
     supported it, too, but we were the largest funder.
       ``We also started the Mandel Center for Non-Profit 
     Management [at Case Western Reserve University], to see if we 
     could improve the quality of management for nonprofits, so 
     they could do a better job.
       ``It's been 10 years now and the program has graduated many 
     people. And now they run everything from museums to 
     settlement houses.''

[[Page E 1796]]

       Last week, the Mandels were recognized for their 
     longstanding commitment to United Way Services, and their 
     gift of $1.2 million toward the purchase of the agency's new 
     headquarters on Euclid Ave. to be named the Mandel Community 
     Building.
       Mandel gifts have also helped in the creation of the Mandel 
     School of Applied Sciences at Case Western Reserve 
     University, and the Mandel Jewish Community Center in 
     Beachwood.
       Mandel's grown children are also very philanthropic, he 
     said.
       ``That's probably the greatest gift Barbara and I have 
     given our kids--their values,'' said Mandel.


                         mather recycled money

       Samuel L. Mather was injured in an explosion at his 
     father's mining company just as he was about to enter Harvard 
     University. He spent three years as an invalid, perhaps 
     inspiring his gifts to medicine and the arts.
       But inherited religious conviction was more likely behind 
     Mather's indefatigable giving, said his great-grandson 
     Sterling ``Ted'' McMillen.
       Mather's ``core, prime passion,'' McMillen said, was the 
     Episcopal Church, which he served in local, national and 
     ecumenical capacities and as director of the Bethel and City 
     Mission.
       ``Mather believed you earned money to recycle it and try to 
     bring about God's pure vision,'' he said. ``In New England, 
     where the Mathers came from, religion called the shots.''
       Boston preacher Increase Mather was president of Harvard. 
     His son Cotton was a preacher, author, mystic, politician and 
     a founder of Yale.
       Samuel Mather Jr. was one of the first 49 shareholders in 
     the Connecticut Land Company, which bought the Western 
     Reserve in 1792. By 1809, he owned four townships. Only he, 
     of the 49, sent a descendant here.
       Son Samuel Livingston Mather arrived in 1843 to set up a 
     law practice and see to his father's interests. He founded 
     Cleveland Iron Mining Co. (later Cleveland-Cliffs Co.) and 
     fathered William Gwinn and Samuel.
       The sons inherited the family propensity to make money and 
     were ultimately credited with writing the book on the iron 
     and steel business of their era. William took over Cleveland-
     Cliffs. Samuel helped found Pickands Mather Co. and built it 
     into the region's second-largest iron ore company.
       Samuel and Flora Stone Mather lived very well, in the most 
     expensive house on Euclid Ave's Millionaires' Row. Mather 
     died the state's richest man in 1931, even though he retired 
     at age 50 and spent 30 years funding and directing nonprofit 
     organizations.
       But the Mathers gave time as well as money. He spent a 
     half-century helping to support Lakeside/University 
     Hospitals, 30 as chairman (thus the new Samuel L. Mather 
     Pavilion). He helped rebuild the Cleveland Clinic after the 
     disastrous 1929 explosion. He was an original trustee of the 
     Cleveland Museum of Art, vice president of University School, 
     and a trustee of Western Reserve University. He helped 
     underwrite Kenyon College and the Library Association.
       Flora funded three buildings for and underwrote Western 
     Reserve University's College for Women, later renamed in her 
     honor. She and her husband funded and led Hiram and Goodrich 
     Houses, which offered social programs for immigrants. Some of 
     these programs evolved into the social work school at the 
     university, the Visiting Nurse Association and the Cleveland 
     Society for the Blind.
       Samuel Mather was president of the Children's Aid Society 
     and the Home for Aged Women, on the board of the National 
     Civic Federation and American Red Cross. When he began 
     directing the Community Fund (later United Way), givers 
     multiplied 10 times. He remained director and top contributor 
     for 21 years.
       Mather succeeded because he was passionate about everything 
     he did, said McMillen. And he was directly involved. 
     Contemporaries noted that he approached any task with 
     enthusiasm, keen observation and analysis, a superb memory, 
     and the ability to get to the point.
       ``Philanthropy is an incredibly fulfilling thing to do,'' 
     McMillen said. ``All of the family still have civic 
     interests.''
       McMillen is a trustee of the art museum and of the $3.8-
     million S. Livingston Mather Charitable Trust which supports 
     cultural programs, education, child welfare, social services 
     and mental health, youth services and conservation. He also 
     supports the Children's Aid Society.

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