Richard Gilder

Richard Gilder Jr. (May 31, 1932 – May 12, 2020) was an American stockbroker and philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He also headed the brokerage firm Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., whose specialty is trading leveraged stocks and shortselling. Gilder joined forces with George Soros in revitalizing Central Park, which galvanized the creation of the Central Park Conservancy, of which he was a trustee.

Early life and education Gilder was born in Manhattan on May 31, 1932, a fifth-generation New Yorker of Bohemian Jewish descent. His father, Richard Sr., worked as a property manager for a real estate company; his mother, Jane (Moyse), was a housewife. Gilder attended Northfield Mount Hermon School before enrolling in Yale College, graduating in 1954 with a BA in history. He received a Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007 from Yale. He provided $4 million, over half the necessary funding, in honor of his daughter, Virginia Gilder, a two-time Olympian, for the recently completed Gilder Boathouse for Yale rowers. The boathouse carries only the Gilder last name to honor three generations of Yale alumni.

Career Gilder with President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and Lewis Lehrman in 2005 After working at the brokerage firm of A.G. Becker & Co., Gilder founded the firm now known as Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. in 1968. He was chairman of the executive committee at the New-York Historical Society and served on the executive board of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. With Lewis Lehrman he was a co-founder (1994) and trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

Gilder worked together with George Soros in 1974 to revitalize Central Park. Their efforts led to the creation of the Central Park Conservancy six years later, In 1993, he made the then-largest private donation to a public park when he promised $17 million if the Conservancy and the municipality did the same. , and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He was chairman emeritus of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank, and the Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee, to which his ex-wife Virginia James continues to be a major donor. In 2005, Gilder and Lewis Lehrman received the National Humanities Medal for their work promoting the study of American history. He then set up a PhD program at the American Museum of Natural History in his own name, the Richard Gilder Graduate School at AMNH. In 2012, he pledged $60 million for the construction of the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, at the American Museum of Natural History. One of his daughters, Virginia Gilder (born 1958), also a Yale graduate, and is a co-owner of the Seattle Storm, a professional women's basketball team in the WNBA. His other children were Peggy, Britt-Louise, and Richard Gilder III. Her paternal uncle was oil tycoon Eddie Chiles.

Gilder died on May 12, 2020, at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 87. News of his death was first announced by his wife, who confirmed that it was due to congestive heart failure.