Sanford Diller

Sanford Ned Diller (June 4, 1928 – February 2, 2018 ) was an American billionaire and the founder of Prometheus Real Estate Group.

Biography The only son of Claire (née Diller) and Jack Diller, Jewish immigrants from Vienna (originally from Eastern Galicia) who had settled in San Francisco, California. His parents owned a kosher style restaurant named "Diller's" in the Fillmore District in San Francisco during the Great Depression.

Diller graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and then graduated with a J.D. from the Hastings College of the Law. He is buried in Mount of Olives, East Jerusalem.

Philanthropy

The Helen Diller Family Foundation is the largest contributor to the University of California, including major gifts to Berkeley and UCSF.

In 2017, the foundation donated $500 million to UCSF, the largest single donation in UCSF's history. In 2018, the foundation announced an additional $500 million commitment to begin planning a new UCSF hospital, the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2003, the Dillers donated $35 million to fund The Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Care Center at the UCSF complex on the biomedical campus of Mission Bay.

Since 1999, the Dillers have donated over $1 billion via their family foundation named after his wife Helen. Other major gifts have funded the renovation of the Julius Kahn playground at the Presidio; Mission Dolores Park Playground, now named Helen Diller Playground; and the preschool in the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, named Helen Diller Preschool. They also have supported San Francisco's de Young Museum, Museum of Modern Art and Legion of Honor Museum.

The Foundation operates two Jewish teen programs: an international Jewish teen leadership program, the Diller Teen Fellows and the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards. Since 2007, the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards have recognized Californian Jewish teens who are outstanding role models in their communities.

Political donations

Through the Diller Foundation donations have also been given to Pro-Israel organizations including the controversial doxing website Canary Mission and Regavim and far-right groups including Project Veritas and the David Horowitz Freedom Center. In 2023, The Nation reported that for tax break purposes the Diller Foundation sometimes channels donations through the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco trust; in 2016 the Foundation donated $100,000 to an obscure Israeli nonprofit called Megamot Shalom, a front for Canary Mission.

Personal life In 1951, Diller married Helen Samuels (born 1928), the daughter of Jewish immigrants (however, her father, William, was born in Denver, Colorado and met Helen's mother, Dora Lipsky in Lodz, Poland) and a fellow Berkeley graduate whom he had met in college. Helen was born at Mount Zion Hospital (now part of UCSF) and lived on Pierce Street in San Francisco. Her father was a clothing salesman and shop owner.

The Dillers have three children: Brad Diller, Ron Diller, and Jackie Safier, president of Prometheus. Diller lived in Woodside, California.

Sanford Diller is also the second cousin of the well known media executive, Barry Diller.