Larry Field ’52 Makes Indelible Impact at Baruch

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Lawrence N. Field, a 1952 graduate whose name graces buildings and programs across the Baruch College campus, died January 28 of this year, leaving behind an outstanding legacy of giving that includes one more gift in his estate plan.

“Larry was a visionary entrepreneur and business leader and a generous philanthropist who, for more than two decades, brought his many talents to bear on behalf of Baruch College and its students,” wrote college president Mitchel B. Wallerstein, PhD, in announcing Field’s passing. “His giving helped propel the College to new heights.”

Larry’s bequest was a leadership level gift in the Benchmark Society, which is for those who make planned gifts as described in this newsletter.

Larry was the son of Hungarian immigrants who grew up in the Bronx. After graduating from Baruch, he trained as an Army Ranger, went to Law School, and then became a highly successful developer and manager of commercial and industrial real estate.

He formed his own business, NSB Associates, naming it after his favorite catchphrase when asked how things are going: “Not So Bad!” Larry even used it in the title of his 2019 autobiography, Not So Bad—From The Bronx to Beverly Hills.

“Baruch showed me the wider world,” he said in an interview in 2005. “The College gave me both the education and the self-confidence to create for myself and my family a future I could never have imagined.”

Larry and his late wife Eris provided the generous naming gift for the Lawrence and Eris Field Building and provided leadership funding for Clivner-Field Plaza. He endowed the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship and a Chair and Professorship in Entrepreneurship. From 1999 until his passing, Larry served as a trustee of the Baruch College Fund. The College bestowed on him an honorary doctoral degree in 2004, and he was awarded the prestigious Newman Medal for Philanthropy in 2013.

His imprint on Baruch is permanent. He will be remembered as an important milestone of the College’s history. As Larry would say, “Not So Bad!”