George Gund II (April 13, 1888 – November 15, 1966) was an American banker, business executive, and real estate investor who lived in
Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States. He inherited his father's fortune and used a portion of it to purchase
alien property seized during World War I. He sold this business at significant profit, and invested widely in banking, insurance, and real estate. Among his investments were a large number of shares in the then-small
Cleveland Trust Company
KeyBank, the primary subsidiary of KeyCorp, is a regional bank headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and is the only major bank based in Cleveland. KeyBank is one of the largest banks in the United States.
Key's customer base spans retail, small ...
. Gund became a director of the bank in 1937 and president in 1941. He led the transformation of the institution into one of the largest banks in the United States. He retired as president in 1962, and was named chairman of the board of directors. A philanthropist for most of his life, he established
The George Gund Foundation
The George Gund Foundation is a charitable foundation established in 1952 to provide grants in the areas of the arts, civic engagement, community development, economic development, environmental policy, and human services, public education, racia ...
in 1952.
Early life
Gund's grandfather, Johann Gund, was born in 1830 in
Brühl am Rhein in the independent country of the
Grand Duchy of Baden (now part of Germany).
[Haller, p. 216.] The family emigrated to the United States in 1848 and settled in Illinois, but in 1854 moved to
La Crosse, Wisconsin.
There he partnered with
Gottlieb Heileman
Johann Gottlieb Heileman (January 6, 1824 in Kirchheim unter Teck, Württemberg – February 19, 1878 in La Crosse, Wisconsin) was the founder of the G. Heileman Brewing Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Heileman founded the brewery in 1858. ...
to form
City Brewing Company
City Brewing Company is a large brewery located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA. It also goes by the trade name of City Brewery.
History
In 1999 the old G. Heileman Brewing Company's former brewery buildings in La Crosse were bought by a group o ...
. Differences in business philosophy led to a parnership split. This prompted the creation the John Gund Brewery, and City Brewing was renamed for Heileman.
His father, George Frederick Gund, was born in LaCrosse in 1856 and later managed the Gund Brewery.
His father moved to Seattle, Washington, founded the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, became a director of two banks, and then returned to the Midwest to move his family to Cleveland in 1897.
[Musson, p. 34.] His father bought the Jacob Mall Brewing Company, renamed it the Gund Brewing Company, and made a large fortune investing in banking, mining, and real estate.
George Gund Jr. (as he was then known) was born to George Frederick and Anna Louise (Metzger) Gund
on April 13, 1888.
[Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System. ''Biographical Master File.'' Papers from the Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System. United States Federal Reserve System. 1954.](_blank)
Accessed 2011-08-04. He was a student at the
University School of Cleveland from 1897 to 1905.
He entered
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, and received his
A.B.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in 1909.
Toward the end of his Harvard education, he simultaneously enrolled in the
Harvard Business School, and graduated in the school's first class in 1909. He moved to Seattle and took a job as a clerk with the Seattle First National Bank, but moved back to Cleveland when his father died in 1916. But when World War I broke out, he enlisted in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
and served in the
Military Intelligence Division.
Business career
After the start of
prohibition in the United States in 1920, Gund was forced to close his father's brewery in Cleveland.
But during the war,
Kaffee HAG, a German corporation, was stripped of its assets in the United States. Among its subsidiaries was
Sanka
Sanka is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee, sold around the world, and was one of the earliest decaffeinated varieties. Sanka is distributed in the United States by Kraft Heinz.
History
Decaffeinated coffee was developed in 1903 by a team ...
, the company which manufactured decaffeinated coffee. Gund purchased Sanka in 1919, then sold it to
Kellogg's in 1927 for $10 million in stock. Gund also took over management of the Gund Realty Company in Cleveland and invested his money in numerous ventures.
During the depths of the Great Depression, he purchased large amounts of stock at very low prices.
["George Gund, 78, Bank's Chairman." ''New York Times.'' November 16, 1966.]
Gund studied
animal husbandry at
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the ...
from 1922 to 1923.
He made many trips to California and Nevada, often staying there for many months at a time, and became interested in a possible political career in Nevada.
[Gund, p. 56.]
In 1937, Gund was elected a director of the
Cleveland Trust Company
KeyBank, the primary subsidiary of KeyCorp, is a regional bank headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and is the only major bank based in Cleveland. KeyBank is one of the largest banks in the United States.
Key's customer base spans retail, small ...
(a savings bank established in 1896),
and was named president in 1941.
He was made chairman of the board of trustees in 1962. Under Gund's leadership, by 1967 the bank had more than $2 billion in assets,
making it the 18th largest bank in the United States. Gund also served on the board of directors of another 30 national and multinational corporations.
[Keele and Kiger, p. 155.]
Gund was "extraordinarily conservative" when it came to business.
Cleveland Trust dominated the city's investment capital decisions, and Gund strongly favored the provision of capital to heavy industry (like steelmaking) and oil refining.
Urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
held little interest for him, and he considered
public-private partnerships too risky.
Philanthropic work and memorials
Gund became a frequent giver of large charitable gifts beginning in 1937.
During his lifetime, he was a generous contributor to the
Cleveland Institute of Art
The Cleveland Institute of Art, previously Cleveland School of Art, is a private college focused on art and design and located in Cleveland, Ohio.
History
The college was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, at fir ...
;
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, where he endowed two professorships;
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is ...
; and
Trinity Cathedral, an
Episcopal church in Cleveland. In 1952, Gund established The George Gund Foundation. He divided his $200 million ($ in dollars) fortune
into three trusts
during his lifetime.
The foundation ended 1953 with $166,878 ($ in dollars) in assets,
but grew to about $30 million ($ in dollars) in assets by 1960. Disbursement of funds to various causes left the George Gund Foundation with just $16.4 million ($ in dollars) in assets by 1964. At Gund's death in November 1966, his estate was worth about $24.5 million ($ in dollars) after the payment of debts and fees.
The bulk of his estate went to the George Fund Foundation, whose assets rose to just over $40 million ($ in dollars).
Gund served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, was a trustee of Kenyon College, and was a member of the advisory lay board of directors of
John Carroll University
John Carroll University is a private Jesuit university in University Heights, Ohio. It is primarily an undergraduate, liberal arts institution accompanied by the John M. and Mary Jo Boler College of Business. John Carroll has an enrollment of 3 ...
.
He also served two terms on the Advisory Council of the Fourth Federal Reserve District in the mid-1950s.
A number of buildings and places are named for Gund, due to his philanthropic efforts. Among these are: George Gund Hall at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall at
Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and Gund Theater at the
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
Death
George Gund died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...
at the
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an Ohio nonprofit corporation established in 1921, it runs a 170-acre (69 ha) campus in Cleveland, ...
on November 15, 1966.
He was interred at
Lake View Cemetery
Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gil ...
in Cleveland.
Personal life
George Gund purchased a large cattle ranch in Nevada,
and had a deep affection for the Old West. He used his income to collect a large number of works of art which depicted the American West, including works by
Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not ...
,
Frederic Remington
Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Stat ...
, and
Charles Marion Russell
Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, an ...
.
In a ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' article about
Agnes Gund
Agnes Gund (born 1938) is an American philanthropist and arts patron, collector of modern and contemporary art, and arts education and social justice advocate. She is President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chair ...
, Agnes addressed her father's personal life. "He didn't get married until he was 48 years old, Ms. Gund said, and there were whispers that he was gay. What Ms. Gund said she knew was that "he didn't like women so much, and I was one of those, so he didn't like me.' "
On May 23, 1936,
he married Jessica Laidlaw Roesler (born June 21, 1903). She was the granddaughter of Henry Bedell Laidlaw, the founder of one of the first investment banking houses in New York City, Laidlaw & Company.
[Van Tassel and Grabowski, p. 479.] Gund purchased a large home in
Beachwood, a wealthy suburb of Cleveland,
and the couple had six children:
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
,
Agnes,
Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
,
Graham
Graham and Graeme may refer to:
People
* Graham (given name), an English-language given name
* Graham (surname), an English-language surname
* Graeme (surname), an English-language surname
* Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer
* Clan ...
, Geoffrey, and Louise.
Descendants
Gund distributed most of his fortune to his children through
trusts
A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the "settl ...
during his lifetime.
He provided for no substantial monetary distribution to his children in his
will. His personal effects, such as art, automobiles, books, clothing, jewelry, and pictures, were bequeathed to his children, however.
His Western art collection was appraised at $301,445 ($ in dollars).
George Gund III
George Gund III (May 7, 1937 – January 15, 2013) was an American businessman and sports entrepreneur.
Gund was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 7, 1937, to Jessica Roesler and George Gund II, a powerful banker in Cleveland. A high-school dro ...
and
Gordon Gund
Gordon Gund (born October 15, 1939) is an American businessman and professional sports owner. He is the CEO of Gund Investment Corporation. He is the former co-owner of the San Jose Sharks (National Hockey League) from 1992–2002, former princip ...
formerly owned the
Cleveland Cavaliers professional basketball team and the
San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertainm ...
and
Minnesota North Stars
The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...
professional ice hockey teams.
In 1991,
Agnes Gund
Agnes Gund (born 1938) is an American philanthropist and arts patron, collector of modern and contemporary art, and arts education and social justice advocate. She is President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chair ...
was named president of the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York City. She stepped down in 2002.
Graham Gund
Graham de Conde Gund is an American architect and the president of the Gund Partnership, an American architecture firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and founded by Gund in 1971. An heir to George Gund II, he is also a collector of contempo ...
is the founder and owner of Graham Gund Architects, an architectural design firm based in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
. An award-winning architect and noted art collector, he has designed numerous important buildings and residences, including the
Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. The theatre company focuses primarily on plays from the Shakespeare canon, but its seasons include works by other classic playwrights such as Euripides, ...
's Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, D.C., and overseen numerous redevelopment projects, such as the refurbishment of historic
Faneuil Hall
Faneuil Hall ( or ; previously ) is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others ...
. He is also a trustee of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Geoffrey Gund teaches at the
Dalton School
The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located ...
in New York City and is president of The George Gund Foundation.
Louise Gund is a Tony Award-winning theater producer, environmentalist, women's activist, and philanthropist.
References
;Notes
;Citations
Bibliography
*Adrain, Loren A. ''The Most Important Thing I Know About: Friendship, Family, Love, Faith, Kindness, Teaching, Success, Excellence, Leadership.'' Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel, 2001.
*Bethell, John T.; Hunt, Richard M.; and Shenton, Robert. ''Harvard A to Z.'' Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.
*''The Big Book of Library Grant Money, 2004-2005.'' Detroit, Mich.: American Library Association, 2004.
*Davis, Jonathan T. ''Forbes Richest People: The Forbes Annual Profile of the World's Wealthiest Men and Women.'' New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
*''Foundation Reporter.'' Rockville, Md.:
Taft Group
Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007.
The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gro ...
, 2002.
*''Fund Raiser's Guide to Private Fortunes.'' Washington, D.C.:
Taft Group
Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007.
The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Gro ...
, 1988.
*Gund, Geoffrey. ''The Gund Collection of Western Art: A History and Pictorial Description of the American West.'' Cleveland: Gund Collection, 1973.
*Helfand, Harvey Zane. ''University of California, Berkeley: An Architectural Tour and Photographs.'' New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.
*Keele, Harold M. and Kiger, Joseph C. ''Foundations.'' Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.
*Haller, Charles R. ''German-American Business Biographies: High Finance and Big Business.'' Asheville, N.C.: Money Tree Imprints, 2001.
*Law School Admission Council. ''The Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools.'' Newtown, Pa.: Law School Admission Council/Law School Admission Services, 1987.
*Musson, Robert A. ''Brewing in Cleveland.'' Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2005.
*Rutherford, Roy. ''Boys Grown Tall: A Story of American Initiative.'' Cleveland: Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1944.
*Van Tassel, David D. and Grabowski, John J. ''The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.'' Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1987.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gund, George
1888 births
1966 deaths
Businesspeople from Cleveland
People from La Crosse, Wisconsin
Harvard Business School alumni
Deaths from leukemia
American bankers
American people of German descent
American business executives
American real estate businesspeople
American philanthropists
American art collectors
20th-century American businesspeople