Brief & Jarring

The purpose of the gathering at Columbia University last week was a groundbreaking ceremony for the 18-story William Black Medical Research Building. It is named after the alumnus ('20) whose cool $5,000,000 gift in 1960 was the biggest ever received by Columbia from a living man. On hand was William Black himself, a self-styled "poor kid from Brooklyn," who parlayed a Times Square nut stand into the $33.7 million-a-year Chock Full O'Nuts Corp. At such ceremonies, the honored donor's speech is expected to contain a little modest reminiscence and some high-minded platitudes. What Black delivered instead was a brief, jarring indictment of "unessential" philanthropies. In two minutes flat, he denounced: > Columbia's plan for a $6,000,000 business-school building "that we don't need." ^ >Philanthropist Huntington Hartford's abuilding multimillion-dollar art museum on Manhattan's 58th Street "when there is one already--a practically new Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street." >Manhattan's new $4,000,000 hospital for animals on the East River "when we don't have the facilities to take care of all human suffering." Black's advice to the rich: "Give away the bulk of your money to worthwhile causes while you're still around. You will not only experience the joy of giving, but you may be doing your children and your wife a favor. For every Rockefeller or Kennedy who was not spoiled by great inherited wealth, you will find an aimless, unhappy man, an alcoholic, and even a suicide now and then. As for your wife, if you leave her more money than she needs, you are surely inviting a flock of hand-kissing experts."

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