Foundation History
In New York City on January 20, 1929, his 70th birthday, Lucius N. Littauer established the Foundation bearing his name. He endowed the Foundation with a gift of one million dollars, and was to donate a total of $3.8 million to the Foundation between 1929 his death in 1944. Littauer left the future direction of the Foundation to the discretion of the board. As the announcement of the creation of the Foundation in the New York Times noted, he wished the trustees to be able to use his gift “where it may be most beneficent at any given time.” This level of independence and trust was unusual for foundations at the time, and it was much remarked upon in the press.
Nevertheless, the Foundation’s grantmaking remained consistent with Mr. Littauer’s philanthropic interests: research, education, health care and social welfare. Some of the Foundation’s earliest grants were to support research fellowships at Albany Medical College and a cooperative program between the College and the Nathan Littauer Hospital which Mr. Littauer has established in Gloversville in memory of his father. Another priority area for the Foundation from the earliest days was promotion of the academic field of Jewish studies. The Foundation helped to build library collections, endow professorships, and support research and publication in the field, particularly at times when support for this discipline was not forthcoming from other sources. The board of the Foundation has watched with great satisfaction as local Jewish communities and alumni of research universities have increased their commitment to the field.
Harry Starr a fellow Gloversvillian and Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate active in Jewish affairs at the university and in the community was Littauer’s close associate in the work of the Foundation. He served as a philanthropic advisor, drew up the Foundation’s articles of incorporation and served as its Secretary. When Littauer died in 1944 Starr succeeded him as President of the Foundation. He served as President until he retired in 1985 assuming the position of Chairman which he held until his death in 1992. He continued the legacy of Lucius Littauer, and was particularly active in fostering Jewish studies in the United States at a time when much of the field was destroyed in Europe.
Starr was succeeded by William Lee Frost. Frost had graduated Harvard in 1948 (Class of 1947), where he was founding president of Hillel. Frost was a diplomat and lawyer with personal volunteer and philanthropic interests in education, libraries and archives, health care, and Jewish communal affairs. He retired as president in 2011, shortly before his death, and was succeeded by his son, the current president of the foundation, Robert D. Frost.
The Foundation continues to further Lucius N. Littauer’s vision, supporting a wide variety of programs in health care, education and research, Jewish studies, Jewish communal life and social services, particularly in the New York metropolitan area and in Israel.
Littauer Biography
Lucius N Littauer was born on January 20, 1859 in Gloversville, NY, the second of five children. His parents were Nathan Littauer, a peddler, merchant and glove manufacturer who had immigrated from Breslau in 1846 and Harriet (Sporborg) Littauer, who came from an old Albany Jewish family. They were the first Jewish family in town, though they were soon joined by many others. Although the family moved to New York City in 1865, its business remained in Gloversville.
Littauer was educated at the Wells Seminary in Gloversville, the Charlier Institute in New York, and went to Harvard College, where he graduated in 1878. He excelled in both academics and athletics, and played football during his time there. While at Harvard, he also roomed with Theodore Roosevelt, who was to remain a close friend and confidant for many years. After his graduation, he served for several years as Harvard’s first football coach.
Littauer returned to Gloversville and went to work in his father’s glove factory, where he and his brother became principals in 1882. He helped to revolutionize the glove industry and became one of the leading industrialists in the region. In 1896 he was elected to Congress representing Fulton County and served for five terms. He was a member of the Appropriations Committee and was particularly influential in the areas of trade and economic policy. He was also interested in the well-being of immigrants and was a staunch advocate for Jewish communities worldwide at a time of rising anti-Semitic violence.
After leaving Congress, Littauer devoted his energies to business, and increasingly to philanthropy, particularly after the sale of the Littauer Glove Company in 1927. His earliest major gift was to establish the Nathan Littauer Hospital in memory of his father in Gloversville in 1894. He also funded major expansions in the 1920s. In 1925, he endowed the Nathan Littauer Professorship of Jewish Literature and Philosophy at Harvard, perhaps the first chair devoted to post-Biblical Jewish studies at a secular university, and which has been held by many of the leading scholars in the field. The interest in health care, higher education, and Jewish studies characterized Littauer’s own philanthropy and continues through the work of the Foundation.
Littauer’s own philanthropic work remained vigorous even after his establishment of the Foundation that bears his name in 1929. Notable gifts included support for a Jewish Community Center and a public swimming pool in Gloversville and numerous grants in health care and Jewish studies. Perhaps best known was his gift to establish a School of Public Administration at Harvard in 1925, which was renamed the Kennedy School of Government in 1966.
Littauer married Flora Crawford in 1913. She passed away in 1924. The couple had no children but left a rich philanthropic and communal legacy. Lucius N. Littauer died on March 2, 1944.
