Remembering Visionary Donor William Newman ’47 (1926-2019)

William Newman ’47, a shrewd businessman who was one of Baruch College’s most beloved alumni and among its most visionary donors, died February 24 at his home in Florida. He was 92.

Bill and his late wife Anita, who died in 2007, gave the college more than $40 million, much of it in planned gifts. The Newman name graces many Baruch buildings, facilities, and programs. “Bill was a visionary benefactor who for decades was among the leading catalysts who helped to propel Baruch’s growing visibility and national reputation,” said College President Mitchel B. Wallerstein.

Bill grew up in a Baruch family—both parents and his older brother Joseph attended. He matriculated at the young age of 15, but enlisted in the Navy two years later and served with distinction during World War II. He then graduated in 1947. He joined his father’s accounting firm and by 1972 had transformed it into one of the nation’s largest real estate corporations focused on neighborhood shopping centers. The company eventually sold for more than $6 billion.

Bill served as a trustee of the Baruch College Fund from 1993 to 2012; the College awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 1997 and the President’s Medal in 2012. When the William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus was dedicated in 2005, Bill gave a short speech in which he listed all the ways he felt fortunate—including that “only in America, and perhaps only at Baruch, can a 15-year-old impecunious subway-riding student from the Bronx get a free education.”

Bill is survived by his greatest treasure: his daughter, Debra Bernstein, and her three children.