Theodore Richard Stanley (April 26, 1931 – January 3, 2016) was an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

and philanthropist. He co-founded the

Danbury Mint The Danbury Mint is a division of MBI, Inc. that markets a variety of collectibles. Danbury Mint historically marketed high quality medals and ingots produced by others exclusively for them. The company also sold numerous other collectible offerin ...

with business partner Ralph Glendinning, which was then a subsidiary of MBI Inc.

Early life

Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Stanley graduated from

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He then served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

and was an intelligence officer. Stanley worked for Procter & Gamble in the marketing division in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

Business

Stanley became a billionaire during his lifetime, earning his wealth through the founding the Danbury Mint, which has a business of selling collectibles by mail order, such as commemorative postage stamps, decorative plates, and other such items. His company's first product was a medal series that commemorated the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

first manned moon landing. After this, the business continued to expand.

Connection to mental health

In 1988, Stanley's son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 19 after having a psychiatric episode that saw him running around New York streets for 3 days and stripping off his clothes in public. His son was eventually helped with a lithium treatment, and eventually finished college and law school, but during the course of his son's treatment he met many parents who were not so lucky, whose children did not improve after treatment. In response, Stanley started donating to mental health research.

Philanthropy

Stanley died in his sleep in

New Canaan, Connecticut New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bound ...

. Before he died, Stanley made a large donation to the

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The institu ...

Cambridge, MA 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 ...

of approximately $650 million for research into genetic markers of mental health. It is recognized as one of the largest private donations ever to support scientific research and the largest ever for mental health research. Before his estates large $650 million donation, which comprised the majority of Stanley's financial holdings, he had periodically donated an additional $175 million, making his lifetime contribution to the Broad Institute $825 million, to support work and research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanley, Ted 1931 births 2016 deaths People from Reading, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania alumni Businesspeople from Pennsylvania American company founders American billionaires Giving Pledgers 21st-century philanthropists 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists