February 10, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
Amount donated in 2013: $43-million
Top beneficiary: Family Matters of Greater Washington
Other notable gift: John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Background: Mr. Herman invested wealth left to him by his father, Bernard, a chief engineer at Southern Railway.
Mr. Herman, who was 100 when he died last year, left the bulk of his estate to two Washington organizations. He bequeathed $28-million to Family Matters of Greater Washington, a social-services organization to which he had been giving relatively small amounts since 1967. Described by a cousin as quiet and shy, Mr. Herman gave the organization a total of slightly more than $490,000 during his lifetime but had no real personal contact with the group.
He also left $15-million to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and stipulated that half of the gift be used to endow the Washington National Opera and the other half to endow the National Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Herman lived across the street from the Kennedy Center and frequently went to performances there but was not closely involved with the organization in any other way.
The Philanthropy 50: Browse the full list of America’s most generous donors in 2013.
Learn more: See this donor’s listing in our database of major gifts, America’s Top Donors.
