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Marion Sandler: 1930 – 2012

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Marion Sandler, a groundbreaking businesswoman and philanthropist, died June 1 at the age of 81.

Marion Sandler

Marion was one of the first two women to work in professional jobs on Wall Street. She went on to become one of the first women chief executive officers of a Fortune 500 company: She and her husband Herb Sandler ran Golden West Financial Corp. from 1963 to 2006. The Sandlers, who committed to giving away their wealth philanthropically, contributed more than $1.3 billion to the Sandler Foundation. The foundation, among other things, provided the backing for MrB’s organization, the nonpartisan investigative journalism organization called ProPublica. That’s how I met her. She was hugely impressive and will be missed.

You can read ProPublica’s obituary here and there’s a website devoted to Marion here. You can learn more about her philanthropic efforts on this page. I especially appreciate her commitment to and unusual take on asthma research. Thanks for everything, Marion.

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Comments

  1. What a beautiful, intelligent and generous woman.
    How rare. I’m sorry she is gone… the world needs more like her.

    Thanks for the lovely post!

  2. Lives that matter … she made differences for people.

    ProPublica matters so much.

  3. I have heard of the Sandler Foundation, but didn’t know the details. Thank you for telling us about Marion. I just made a ProPublica donation as a tribute.

  5. I’m sorry she is gone… the world needs more like her.

    Today is a very sad day for me.