Lucius N. Littauer Foundation

Who We Are The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation is incorporated in the State of New York. It is governed by its board of trustees. Foundation History In New York City on January 20, 1929, his 70th birthday, Lucius N. Littauer established the Foundation bearing his name. He endowed the Foundation with a gift of one million dollars, and was to donate a total of $3.8 million to the Foundation between 1929 his death in 1944. Littauer left the future direction of the Foundation to the discretion of the board. As the announcement of the creation of the Foundation in the New York Times noted, he wished the trustees to be able to use his gift “where it may be most beneficent at any given time.” This level of independence and trust was unusual for foundations at the time, and it was much remarked upon in the press. Nevertheless, the Foundation’s grantmaking remained consistent with Mr. Littauer’s philanthropic interests: research, education, health care and social welfare. Some of the Foundation’s earliest grants were to support research fellowships at Albany Medical College and a cooperative program between the College and the Nathan Littauer Hospital which Mr. Littauer has established in Gloversville in memory of his father. Another priority area for the Foundation from the earliest days was promotion of the academic field of Jewish studies. The Foundation helped to build library collections, endow professorships, and support research and publication in the field, particularly at times when support for this discipline was not forthcoming from other sources. The board of the Foundation has watched with great satisfaction as local Jewish communities and alumni of research universities have increased their commitment to the field. Harry Starr a fellow Gloversvillian and Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate active in Jewish affairs at the university and in the community was Littauer’s close associate in the work of the Foundation. He served as a philanthropic advisor, drew up the Foundation’s articles of incorporation and served as its Secretary. When Littauer died in 1944 Starr succeeded him as President of the Foundation. He served as President until he retired in 1985 assuming the position of Chairman which he held until his death in 1992. He continued the legacy of Lucius Littauer, and was particularly active in fostering Jewish studies in the United States at a time when much of the field was destroyed in Europe. Starr was succeeded by William Lee Frost. Frost had graduated Harvard in 1948 (Class of 1947), where he was founding president of Hillel. Frost was a diplomat and lawyer with personal volunteer and philanthropic interests in education, libraries and archives, health care, and Jewish communal affairs. He retired as president in 2011, shortly before his death, and was succeeded by his son, the current president of the foundation, Robert D. Frost. The Foundation continues to further Lucius N. Littauer’s vision, supporting a wide variety of programs in health care, education and research, Jewish studies, Jewish communal life and social services, particularly in the New York metropolitan area and in Israel.