Setting an Example, Reluctantly

Kenneth G. Langone has given hundreds of millions of dollars to charity, supporting medical research, higher education, and other causes.

But the wealthy investor says his philanthropy shouldn’t solicit wild applause.

“I don’t think I am terribly

Kenneth G. and Elaine A. Langone (No. 17) Total committed in 2008: $100-million Recipient: New York University Langone Medical Center

charitable,” he says matter-of-factly in an interview here at his investment company, Invemed Associates.

While he is a successful businessman with a corner office overlooking Park Avenue and shirts embroidered with his initials, Mr. Langone, 73, says that his working-class childhood in Long Island taught him that giving requires sacrifice. It was a lesson, he says, displayed by his father, a plumber, who would give money to his family’s Catholic Church each week despite his modest means.

“For my old man to put something into that collection, he went without something. I don’t go without anything — magnificent homes, great clothes, offices, clubs, great restaurants. I don’t give up a thing,” Mr. Langone says in his gravelly New York accent. “So in the context of real philanthropy, I don’t consider myself a philanthropist.”

The doctors, students, and administrators at New York University’s medical school would disagree.

Mr. Langone and his wife, Elaine, last year pledged $100-million to the 168-year-old institution. The contribution, which was given without restrictions, will help refurbish the nonprofit organization’s worn facilities and help build by 2015 a new state-of-the-art hospital at its four-block campus in midtown Manhattan.

The donation matches another $100-million gift the couple made in 1999, which was given anonymously at the time. (The Langones were identified as the donors when the more recent gift was announced.)

To honor the big contributions and Mr. Langone’s role as chairman of its Board of Trustees, the institution was renamed the NYU Langone Medical Center.

“He’s just amazingly generous, not only of his money but equally or more importantly of his time and his commitment to this medical center,” says Robert I. Grossman, a radiologist who serves as the center’s chief executive. “He knows the people who work here, and he spends an enormous amount of time here.”

Feuds and Philanthropy

Mr. Langone earned his wealth as a shrewd investor, helping to found the Home Depot retail chain, among other successful businesses. In 2007, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $1.1-billion. He perhaps is best known for his public fight in 2004 with Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor.

When Mr. Spitzer was attorney general of the state, he accused Mr. Langone, who was then the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange’s compensation committee, of approving an excessive pay package for Richard A. Grasso, the exchange’s chairman and chief executive, and a friend of Mr. Langone’s.

A New York appeals court eventually found the charges were without merit, though the animosity between the two has not eased. In his office, Mr. Langone proudly displays a dartboard with Mr. Spitzer’s face on it.

Outside his legal battles, Mr. Langone plays a major role in the New York charity world.

Aside from the gifts to the medical center, Mr. Langone has supported New York University’s business school, where he received a master’s degree, and other higher-education causes. He also serves on the boards of several venerable New York charities, like the Robin Hood Foundation and the Harlem Children’s Zone. In addition, his wife is a strong advocate for Boys & Girls Clubs and animal shelters.

Despite his charitable streak, he grows agitated when he talks about his philanthropy.

“This all makes me sound like a pretty good guy; trust me, there are bad sides to me, too. We’re all human, for Christ’s sake,” he says.

Painful Memories

In part, he attributes his aversion to receiving too much praise for his giving to a childhood memory.

His family’s church would honor donors at Christmas time by publishing a list of how much money members of the congregation gave as part of its holiday collection. Mr. Langone says he will never forget where his father’s name appeared on it.

“My father was always at the bottom of the list,” says Mr. Langone. “You have no idea how I hated that [expletive] list. I still think it has a psychological impact on me in my not wanting to be boastful about what I have done.”

Indeed, Mr. Langone resisted the idea of having the medical center renamed after him. He changed his mind when he was told the move would help persuade other well-heeled donors to support the medical school and its associated hospitals and health-research institutes.

“He wasn’t interested in naming, but it became a way of marketing contributions,” says Martin Lipton, a lawyer who is chairman of New York University’s Board of Trustees and recruited Mr. Langone to be chairman of the medical school’s board.

The medical center even took the unusual step of paying for an advertisement in The New York Times promoting the Langone contribution.

“The medical center advertised the gift in The New York Times because it was a way to thank Mr. and Mrs. Langone for their generosity and encourage others to donate in order to help make the medical center a world-class institution,” says Theodora Klissas, a spokeswoman for the medical center.

In part because of the Langone gift and the ad, the medical center received several seven-figure gifts last year — a notable feat in the down economy.

They include $156.5-million from Helen L. Kimmel and her late husband, Martin. Mrs. Kimmel, whose donation will help pay for the construction of a new patient pavilion, says the Langones’ commitment to the center helped persuade her to make the contribution.

“I do know them personally, and it made a great difference,” she says. “I felt with Ken Langone as chairman of the board and Bob Grossman as the dean and CEO, we had a great team in place.”

Another donation came in the form of a birthday present.

Marjorie and Walter Buckley Jr., who have known Mr. Langone for more than three decades, gave the investor on his 73rd birthday a test tube stuffed with a handwritten note, which said the couple had given $5-million to the medical center to establish a scholarship in Mr. Langone’s name.

“It’s on my desk all the time,” says Mr. Langone, picking up the test tube and reading the note to a visitor.

‘What Am I Missing?’

Mr. Langone first became involved with the medical center 10 years ago. The institution was recovering from a failed merger with Mount Sinai Medical Center and, despite a noteworthy history — for example, Jonas Salk, developer of the first polio vaccine, earned his medical degree there — was not well-known compared with other medical institutions in the city.

Mr. Lipton, of New York University’s board, asked Mr. Langone to help turn the medical center around, but was rebuffed at first.

“He said he was very reluctant and what he was going to do was some due diligence — typical of an investment banker,” Mr. Lipton says with a smile.

After several visits, Mr. Langone says he was impressed with how well patients, including those who were dying, were treated at the center by the staff members.

“I come from the cold-blooded world of business where, when your competitor goes broke, it’s one of the great days of your life. It’s dog eat dog, cut-throat business,” he says. “And then you walk into a place like that and see there’s more to life. It’s like, Holy Christ, what am I missing?”

A devout Catholic who attends Mass almost every day, Mr. Langone describes his connection to the center as a “spiritual” one.

However, he does openly identify a clash between his charity work and his religion: The medical center performs abortions, which his religion opposes.

But for Mr. Langone, the institution embraces Christian compassion. “What I see happen at the medical center is what I perceive to be totally consistent with the teachings of my faith,” he says.

Attention to Detail

As board chairman, Mr. Langone spends about 20 hours a week overseeing the center’s work, pushing it to have a spit-and-polish image. During visits, he checks to see if security guards wear their uniforms properly and that wastebaskets are emptied routinely.

Under his guidance, the center, which has a $2.1-billion budget, is doing more to distinguish itself from other medical institutions in the city.

For example, it has started Doctor Radio, a radio program hosted by doctors and health experts on its staff that covers psychiatry, men’s health, and other topics. The show is broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Mr. Langone was also influential in hiring Dr. Grossman, who was formerly head of the organization’s radiology department and became the center’s chief executive in 2007.

While Dr. Grossman plays down his role in the center’s fund-raising success, he helped bring in more than $500-million in 2008 — the largest amount in the institution’s history.

“Somebody in development once told me, ‘Development is a contact sport.’ It’s all about building relationships, articulating a vision, and having deliverables so that people do believe it,” he says. “That’s all we did. There’s no brilliance there.”

Dr. Grossman does worry that the sour economy will hurt New York State’s support for the center.

He says the financial scheme allegedly perpetrated by the financier Bernard Madoff has sapped the wealth of some people who were interested in giving to the organization.

As for Mr. Langone, he says the stock-market volatility will not slow down the pace of his payments to fulfill his monetary commitment to the medical center.

“My wife and I have always lived within our means,” he says. “Our means today takes into account the obligations we have, including our philanthropic commitments.”

While he has lost money like others on Wall Street, Mr. Langone dismisses the idea that his philanthropy should slow because of tough times.

“This is a piece of paper with enormously large numbers on it,” he says, waving a stack of investment statements. “It’s mine, but it’s only on paper.”

He says it would be a “tragedy” if he didn’t use his wealth to support the doctors and nurses at the medical center and other charitable people.

“Don’t misunderstand me, I love to make money, I still do,” he says. “But I do know that there’s a higher calling than just accumulating a pile of money.”

Maria Di Mento and Caroline Preston contributed to this article.