Leon Falk Jr.

Leon Falk Jr. (September 23, 1901 – June 9, 1988) was a steel company executive and philanthropist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Falk was involved in the founding of several arts and cultural institutions in the Pittsburgh area, notably the University of Pittsburgh's Falk Clinic, Falk Laboratory School, the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and the Chancellor's Residence for the University of Pittsburgh.

Early life Falk was born September 23, 1901, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Leon Falk (1869–1928) and Fanny Edel Falk (1879–1910). He attended Philips Exeter Academy from 1918 to 1920. He graduated from Yale University, the Sheffield Scientific School in 1924. He was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.

Career Business life Falk went to work for Weirton Steel in 1926 and soon was named treasurer. He was chairman of the board from 1948 to 1952 and later became executive director of National Steel's executive committee. Chatham's School of Sustainability & the Environment was renamed, the Falk School of Sustainability. The Falk Foundation made its first grant to Chatham in 1952 with the funding of Chatham's Falk Hall, named in honor of Laura Falk.

University of Pittsburgh Falk, while serving as the vice-chairman of the University of Pittsburgh's Board of Trustees in 1966, gave the university his house on Devonshire Street in the Shadyside neighborhood to serve as the Chancellor's Residence, a function in which the house still serves.

Fanny Edel Falk Elementary School Falk and his sister Marjorie Falk Levy began planning a memorial to their parents in 1929. Having ruled out an addition to the Falk Memorial at Rodef Shalom, they founded an elementary school in honor of their mother, Fanny Edel Falk Elementary School (now Falk Laboratory School). The school was intended to promote progressive and experimental methods of teaching that could be observed and studied by those pursuing a teaching degree. The school was created as a laboratory for teaching, directly connected to the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Established under a charter agreement between the University and Leon Falk Jr. and Marjorie Falk Levy in 1930, the school has a unique status among American laboratory schools in that it is the only one that is known to have a legal charter that stipulates its purpose and functions. Construction was completed on January 13, 1932, and the school opened in the fall of 1932.

Dominican Republic Settlement Association The Evian Conference in 1938 was organized to find solutions to the growing Jewish refugee crisis in Nazi Germany. The Dominican Republic and its dictatorial leader Rafael Trujillo agreed to accept 100,000 refugees, the only of 32 countries at the conference willing to increase their limits. Falk Jr. and his wife Katherine were very active in the association, including sponsoring some of the trips, arranging grants from the Falk Foundation and visiting the colony several times. The Pittsburgh Playhouse became a successful community theater for many years.

By the mid 1960s the Pittsburgh Playhouse was in crisis. After a failed move to a professional theater company with the American Conservatory Theater, attendance and subscriptions had dropped off significantly and the ambitious seasons had increased expenses and driven away corporate support, leaving the Playhouse in a tenuous financial position by December 1966. Loti Falk and Theodore Hazlett Jr. led a successful emergency effort to raise $300,000 in order for the 1966–1967 Playhouse season to continue.

In December 1948, Falk married his ex-wife's sister, Josephine Sonneborn Ross. Josephine died in her sleep on board their yacht, Saba, in Stuart, Florida on February 11, 1962.

Falk later met Loti Grunberg while living in New York City and were married in 1963. The couple moved back to Pittsburgh from New York City in 1963 and became increasingly active in the arts and cultural community of Pittsburgh. Loti joined the board of the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1963 and helped the Pittsburgh Playhouse avoid financial collapse in 1966. Loti Falk helped found the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in 1969.

Falk died on June 9, 1988, after a series of strokes at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh and was survived by his wife Loti, three daughters, two sons, a stepdaughter and four stepsons.