Ronald P Stanton

Mr. Stanton founded Transammonia, a New York company that distributes fertilizers, petroleum gas, and petrochemicals. Mr. Stanton, 81, pledged $50-million to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, for a cancer-care program at the hospital and at its sister institution, Weill Cornell Medical. In 2006 he announced a gift of $100 million to Yeshiva University. Mr. Stanton is chairman of Transammonia, Inc., a private company that trades, distributes and transports fertilizer materials, liquefied petroleum gases, petrochemicals, and crude oil. Established by Mr. Stanton in 1965, Transammonia is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the nation’s 100 largest private corporations. Born in 1928 in Wiesbaden, Germany, Mr. Stanton immigrated to the United States in 1937. His involvement with Yeshiva University began soon after, when he was offered a scholarship by Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York, to study at the institution and prepare for a career in the rabbinate. He preferred a career in business, and chose to study economics at City College of New York, from which he graduated in 1950. However, he formed a long-standing personal and philanthropic relationship with the University. In 1976, he was elected to Yeshiva University’s Board of Trustees; in 1992, he was named a Vice Chairman and 10 years later was elected the seventh Chairman of the Board. He continues to serve as the longest serving member of the University’s board. He is survived by a son, Oliver, from his first marriage, to the former Ruth Schloss; a daughter, Hedi Stanton, and a son, Philip, from his second marriage, to Mei Wu; and three grandchildren. Both marriages ended in divorce. An art collector, Mr. Stanton owned works by Renoir, Matisse and Picasso, among others.