Samuel Gottesman

For other people named David Gottesman, see David Gottesman (disambiguation).

David Samuel Gottesman (1885 – April 21, 1956), was a Hungarian-born, American pulp-paper merchant, financier and philanthropist. He was generally known as Samuel Gottesman or D. Samuel Gottesman.

Pulp-paper

Born to Mendel and Sarah, née Fischgrund, in Munkacs, Hungary in 1885, Gottesman emigrated to the United States as a child and later joined his father's paper business, M. Gottesman & Company, which he had founded in 1886, in New York City. He went on to transform the firm into Central National-Gottesman Inc. Long after Gottesman's death, Central-National Gottesman is a multi-billion dollar corporation and the world's largest pulp and paper merchant. The firm grew organically and through the acquisition of other companies, including, Lindenmeyr Paper Corporation, Perkins & Squire Company, and D.F. Monroe.

Banking

He was also a successful banker, organizing the Central National Bank in New York City. Today, through a series of mergers, the bank is a part of JPMorgan Chase & Co. He was also the director of the Eastern Corporation and of Rayonier Inc.

Philanthropy

He is best known for his generous philanthropy. His monetary gifts extended to the New York Public Library and numerous Jewish organizations and institutions, including the D. Samuel Gottesman Library at Yeshiva University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.

One of his highest-profile gifts, was the donation of the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls to the State of Israel, where they are housed in the Shrine of the Book. The shrine, located adjacent to the Israel Museum in western Jerusalem, was paid for by a foundation established by Gottesman's children as a memorial to their father. However, the architects, chosen (or at least condoned) by Gottesman himself before he died or appointed by his daughter Celeste Ruth Bartos, were not embraced by the Israeli architectural establishment. The indigenous architects opposed the choice of architects Armand Phillip Bartos and Frederick John Kiesler on several basis, including that Bartos was Celeste Gottesman's husband. Nevertheless, Bartos and Kiesler designed the structure which was completed in 1965.

Family

Samuel Gottesman is the uncle of billionaire David Gottesman.

His wife died of cancer in 1942 at age 49, a year after his granddaughter Jenifer was born. She likewise died of cancer, in 1991.

Earlier on, Celeste Ruth Gottesman had married Jerome John Altman in 1935, divorced him and married Bartos. Due to the inheritance of her father's estate, she is a wealthy modern-art collector and museum and library benefactor, who resides in New York City. (See Armand Phillip Bartos concerning the couple's family and philanthropic activities.)

In addition to the Bartos's own eponymous foundations, Mrs. Bartos established the Pinewood Foundation in 1958, named after her father's estate in Lawrence, Long Island, New York.

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Name	Gottesman, Samuel
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Date of birth	1885
Place of birth
Date of death	April 21, 1956
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