Irving I. Stone (1909 in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
– January 19, 2000) was an American
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
, businessman, and founder-chairman of
American Greetings
American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the world's second largest greeting card producer behind Hallmark Cards. Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, the company sells paper greeting ...
.
He was born to Jacob Sapirstein;
[ the ''stein'' ending, in Yiddish, when pronounced "''SHtine''", means "stone".
]
Career
Stone turned a small family business, Sapirstein Greeting Card Company, into "the world's second-largest maker of greeting cards.".[
In the 1930s, rather than merely sell what others had designed, he began what is now the ''American Greetings Creative Department'', which the New York Times described as "one of the biggest art studios in the United States."
He authored the company's "''From Someone Who Likes to Remember Someone Too Nice to Forget''" card, using skills he developed and improved by taking courses at night.
The company he built has over 20,000 employees, and competes with ]Hallmark
A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''hallmark'' can al ...
.
Philanthropy
Among the causes supported by Stone were Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.["About YU]
on the Yeshiva Universit ...
, Hebrew Academy of Cleveland
The Hebrew Academy of Cleveland is a private day school in Cleveland, Ohio with over 1,000 students. It provides Judaic and secular education from pre-school through high school. The Hebrew Academy was established in 1943 by the Telshe Yeshiva an ...
,[ and the Chinuch Atzmai Torah schools in ]Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. The Stones supported projects under the guidance of Rabbi Nachum Zev Dessler
Nachum Zev (Velvel) Dessler (1921 – January 23, 2011) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi as well as founder and dean of the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland.
Dessler was also instrumental in building the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools.
Personal ...
, in Cleveland. Irving I. Stone was also the main benefactor to Camp Stone, a Zionist summer camp in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. The Stone in Manhattan was named after him, as he was a frequent concert goer.
The Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
suburb of Kiryat Yearim
( he, קִרְיַת יְעָרִים), also known as Telz-Stone, is an strictly Orthodox town in the Jerusalem District of Israel. It is located in the approximate area of an ancient place mentioned in the Bible, from which it takes its name. ...
, also known as Telz-Stone, was named in his honor.
Stone Chumash
His name is the source for the Stone Chumash's name.
References
External links
*http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=13120
*https://web.archive.org/web/20110926232645/http://www.ohrtorahstone.org.il/rabi4.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Irving
1909 births
2000 deaths
Greeting cards
Jewish American philanthropists
20th-century American philanthropists
20th-century American Jews