| Notes |
Philanthropist, community leader Charles Schusterman dies
World's own Service Dec 31, 2000
Philanthropist, community leader Charles Schusterman dies
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Print
Save
Funeral services for the local benefactor are scheduled for Monday.
Tulsa philanthropist, businessman and Jewish leader Charles Schusterman died Saturday after a long illness. He was 65.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Temple Israel under the direction of Fitzgerald Funeral Home.
Schusterman and his wife, Lynn, have contributed millions of dollars over the years to causes ranging from providing supplies for elementary schoolchildren to the University of Oklahoma and from the Israel Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem to the Parent Child Center of Tulsa.
"Charles Schusterman was the essential best citizen," Gov. Frank Keating, his friend for more than 20 years, said. "He was an extraordinary businessman, a gifted philanthropist and the symbol of a good man.
His loss is a loss to the entire state -- he has done so much for so many for so long."
Schusterman was inducted in November into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame by the Oklahoma Heritage Association.
Their largess earned the Schustermans the 1996 Philanthropist of the Year Award from the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. He was also honored with the Humanitarian Award from the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine and with the Global Vision Award from the Tulsa Global Alliance.
A Tulsa native and the son of immigrants, Schusterman graduated from OU with a degree in petroleum engineering and recognition as one of the university's top 10 seniors.
Following a hitch in the military, Schusterman entered the oil-field salvage business. The enterprise eventually grew into Samson Investment, one of the nation's largest independent oil and gas companies, with holdings in the United States, Canada, Russia and Venezuela.
Schusterman also branched out into banking, distribution, real estate and other ventures. Philanthropy, however, became the business for which he was best known.
With the establishment of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in 1987, major gifts were directed toward education, children and the community. The largest single gift, made in December 1999, was $10 million to help OU purchase Amoco's former Tulsa research facility. The 40-acre site at 4502 E. 41st St. has been renamed the Schusterman Health Sciences Center and will house OU's growing medical education and research efforts in Tulsa.
Donations to OU also have endowed the Schusterman-Josey Chair in Jewish Studies.
"Oklahoma has lost one of its most outstanding and generous citizens," OU President David Boren said. "The University of Oklahoma family joins countless others in expressing our deepest sympathy to the Schusterman family. Through his many gifts to educational programs for young people from elementary school through the university level, Charles Schusterman has left a lasting legacy. He was one of the University of Oklahoma's most caring alumni."
TOP ARTICLES
1/5
READ MORE
'He will be remembered forever:' Roy Clark's life
celebrated at memorial service in Broken Arrow
Boren announced Saturday that the OU flag at the school's Schusterman Center in Tulsa will fly at half-staff in his honor and the bells of the Oklahoma Memorial Union clock tower on the Norman campus will toll as his funeral service begins.
Other contributions by the Schusterman Family Foundation include support of a program that provides school supplies to 13,000 Tulsa children, Adopt-A- School, Camp Anytown, the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics and the Energy Institute of the Americas.
As remarkable as Schusterman's generosity has been, however, his tenacity has matched it. He was diagnosed with leukemia 17 years ago and given three years to live. He continued to fight the disease while living a full and active life.
Aggressive, often experimental medical care and a positive mental attitude, he said, allowed him not only to survive but to prosper, building Samson Investment into one of the top 30 independent oil and gas companies in the United States.
Schusterman spoke regularly about the power of positive thinking and actively sought to be a role model for others with fatal diseases and physical limitations.
"Charlie was a special person," longtime friend Don Newman said. "He was incredibly bright, wholly unassuming, open and direct and extremely generous. He had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, a desire to teach and a love of life, which characterized his tenacious fight against his illness."
In September, Schusterman turned over the reins of the privately held Samson to his co-CEOs, his daughter Stacy Schusterman and Jack W. Schanck, while remaining chairman of the board of the company that was named for his father.
Although he retired from day-to-day involvement in Samson, Schusterman showed little sign of slowing down. With Edgar Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt, he embarked upon a new cause -- Synagogue Transformation and Renewal -- to help revitalize the synagogues of North America.
The three partners announced plans to spend $18 million over the next five years to find out why the percentage of American Jews who are active in a synagogue is declining sharply and to do something about it.
"Assimilation and attrition are seriously depleting the ranks of our people," Schusterman said. "We are living in an era when every Jew is a Jew by choice, so we must completely rethink how we deliver our faith and culture, now that Judaism must compete in the marketplace of ideas."
First and foremost, however, Schusterman was committed to his family.
"Our family was the most important part of Charlie's life," Lynn Schusterman, his wife of 38 years, said. "One of the reasons he worked so hard on behalf of so many charitable causes was to teach us the importance of tikkun olam -- a Hebrew phrase meaning to repair the world."
Schusterman is survived by his wife, Lynn; children, two sons, Hal Schusterman of Israel and Jay Schusterman of Boulder, Colo.; one daughter, Stacy Schusterman of Tulsa; one brother, Dan Schusterman of Tulsa; one sister, Ruth Poznik of Denver; and six granddaughters.
Friends are contributing in Schusterman's memory to any of the following: STAR (Synagogue Transformation and Renewal), 230 W. Monroe, Suite 2150, Chicago, IL 60606-4694; Heritage Academy, 2021 E. 71st St., Tulsa, OK 74136; Community Action Project, 717 S. Houston Ave., Suite 200, Tulsa, OK 74127; or the Schusterman Health Science Center at the University of Oklahoma, 4502 E. 41st St., Suite 3B32, Tulsa, OK 74135.
|