Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 824

Heiskell:

We is me, Dick Salomon, Gregorian. Believe it or not it took six months, with us trying to estimate the figure. There would be days when it looked as low as a million, and days when it looked like twelve. Time went on and on, and of course we weren't asking other trustees, for the obvious reason. So finally we decided, “Well”--we really got a fix on how much money she had left in the foundation. She had what appeared to be forty million, but there were commitments already made so it really came down to somewhere between twenty and twenty-five. So we finally made up this package and went to her with it for 7,800,000, I think. We thought that would be the most we could get, and would just barely do the trick. Well more time went by. Then one day she said, “Well, I'll give you ten million.” Period. No conditions, no nothing. She said, “That's it as far as my foundation is concerned. Now I can give away 100,000 here and 100,000 there but that will be my last big gift.”

She's been marvelous! I mean she attends meetings--she attends meetings of the executive committee. She's eighty-four. She goes around to the branches. She is really interested in the Library, as she's interested in a lot of other things. But she is really seriously interested in what goes on at the Library. We have a Christmas party, open house. She will be standing there to receive. She's just an extraordinary woman.

Well the minute we got the ten--

Q:

She called you?

Heiskell:

I'm trying to remember. I think so. She said, “There's a





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help