The man who gave half a billion dollars to 125 nonprofits last year is giving again. Thomas Golisano recently pledged $50 million to Kaleida Health to support specialized pediatric care at the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. The Buffalo, N.Y., medical center will be renamed Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo in January.
Golisano has been a mainstay among philanthropists in Upstate New York for decades. Born in Rochester, N.Y., to a pasta-salesman father and seamstress mother, Golisano founded the payroll giant Paychex in 1971 and built a fortune of more than $6 billion. He has appeared in the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 report of the biggest donors four times since 2002.
The children’s hospital was previously named for Oishei, a Buffalo businessman who died in 1968 and whose John R. Oishei Foundation gave Kaleida Health $10 million to build the hospital. The foundation’s board members agreed to relinquish these naming rights when Golisano pledged this latest gift.
Other Recent Big Gifts Include:
- Roger and Vicki Musick gave $33 million to Dakota Wesleyan University and Mitchell Public Schools to establish two $15 million scholarship funds. The one at Mitchell Public Schools will support scholarships for graduates of the public school system and for low-income high school juniors and seniors there to take Dakota Wesleyan University courses. The fund at the university will provide scholarships for all Mitchell Public Schools teachers and administrators who want to pursue master’s degrees or professional development courses at the university. The remaining $3 million will go to the two institutions to launch the scholarship funds right away. Roger Musick is a Mitchell, S.D., businessman who graduated from Mitchell High School.
- Floyd Kvamme pledged $30 million through his Jean and E. Floyd Kvamme Foundation to Sutter Health to build the Jean and E. Floyd Kvamme Advanced Cancer Center, scheduled to open in 2030 in Santa Cruz, Calif. Kvamme is a former partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, a technology venture-capital firm in Menlo Park, Calif., and was an executive at Apple in the early 1980s. His wife, Jean, died in 2020 after battling cancer.
- The late King Richter left $21.9 million to Fresno Pacific University to establish three endowed scholarship funds. Richter grew up in Fresno, Calif., and was part of a prominent business family there. His grandfather, Jacob, founded Fresno’s Pepsi Cola Bottling Company in 1895. When the Liggett Group bought the company in 1975, King Richter moved from Fresno to Beverly Hills, Calif., and focused on charitable giving.
- Hollywood producer Dick Wolf gave Mount Desert Island Hospital $10 million to help pay for the construction of a new emergency department, upgraded surgical suites, and a new entrance to the hospital. Wolf has created numerous television shows and documentaries. He created the Law & Order franchise, and Chicago Fire and Chicago PD television shows.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
