Post by Jaga on Feb 10, 2009 17:43:12 GMT -7
I am not sure whether we posted any information about it before. But they talk about him in the Polish-American Journal. I also have heard from a Polish friend in Chicago about him.
He was a retired Chicago schoolteacher with a knack for stock-picking and an abiding interest in Polish culture. When he died July 3 at age 77, the lifelong bachelor left no immediate survivors and could easily have been forgotten by all but friends and distant relatives.
But Romuald “Ron” Hejna made his mark after all. He bequeathed his estate, $10 million, to the University of Illinois at Chicago for enhancing the study of Polish history and culture.
UIC said the bequest is one of the larger it has received from an individual and is the single biggest donation to its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The college will establish two chairs named after Hejna in Polish history and one in Polish language and literature.
UIC also revealed it had received prior gifts from Hejna (pronounced HAY-nah) since 1995 totaling nearly $500,000, all earmarked for Polish studies.
Hejna had asked UIC not to reveal his name while he was alive. He also contributed to and was active in Polish organizations here during his life.
Hejna was born in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood and later moved to Evergreen Park, Oak Brook and Las Vegas before settling in a condo in Wilmette, said longtime friend Richard Jakubowski.
Hejna split his college education at the University of Illinois between the campus that had been at Navy Pier and the one in Urbana-Champaign from which he graduated. Jakubowski said his friend never doubted that his money should remain in Chicago, given the city’s notable Polish-American population and heritage.
Jakubowski said Hejna had been a history teacher and counselor at Bogan High School when he made an important observation: Students loitering outside school would smoke no matter how many times teachers told them not to.
So Hejna, perhaps cynically, started investing in tobacco stocks. His success with them led to deeper involvement, further gains in the stock market and a legacy at UIC.
Meltdown: Charities are bracing for the fallout from the crises in the financial sector and further blows to consumer confidence.
Financial firms have been generous donors. For example, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., now in bankruptcy, and its foundation last year donated $39 million, including more than $300,000 to some 15 children’s, social services, health and culture groups in Chicago.
A Lehman report on its philanthropy showed its foundation was to pay out over 10 years, until 2014, $1 million to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business for a classroom named in honor of a late Lehman executive. The U. of C. wouldn’t speculate on how Lehman’s bankruptcy would affect the unpaid amount.
Melissa Berman, president and chief executive officer of New York-based Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, said she was sorry to see the likely end of the Lehman Foundation, which she said has been “a thoughtful, strategic giver.”
Grants: Chicago real estate investor ZevKarkomi and his wife, Shifra, are giving $2 million to the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, which will name its permanent exhibition space after their family when the facility opens next year in Skokie. The donation helped bring the center’s fundraising total to $36 million. The goal is $45 million.
Chicago lawyer Peer Pedersen is giving $1 million to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which is naming a new ground-floor restaurant at the Civic Opera House after him and his late wife, Sarah. The Pedersen Room, facing Wacker Drive, is to open in 2009 and be used by Lyric patrons on performance days. Pedersen has been a Lyric Board member since 1996.
Confab: The Chicago Global Donors Network is to hold its annual conference Tuesday and Wednesday in the downtown Standard Club. Topics are to include sustainable growth, hunger, fair trade, Muslim philanthropy, micro-lending and disaster management. For more information, go to chicagoglobaldonors.org.
archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/sep/18/news/chi-giving-0918_qsep18
He was a retired Chicago schoolteacher with a knack for stock-picking and an abiding interest in Polish culture. When he died July 3 at age 77, the lifelong bachelor left no immediate survivors and could easily have been forgotten by all but friends and distant relatives.
But Romuald “Ron” Hejna made his mark after all. He bequeathed his estate, $10 million, to the University of Illinois at Chicago for enhancing the study of Polish history and culture.
UIC said the bequest is one of the larger it has received from an individual and is the single biggest donation to its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The college will establish two chairs named after Hejna in Polish history and one in Polish language and literature.
UIC also revealed it had received prior gifts from Hejna (pronounced HAY-nah) since 1995 totaling nearly $500,000, all earmarked for Polish studies.
Hejna had asked UIC not to reveal his name while he was alive. He also contributed to and was active in Polish organizations here during his life.
Hejna was born in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood and later moved to Evergreen Park, Oak Brook and Las Vegas before settling in a condo in Wilmette, said longtime friend Richard Jakubowski.
Hejna split his college education at the University of Illinois between the campus that had been at Navy Pier and the one in Urbana-Champaign from which he graduated. Jakubowski said his friend never doubted that his money should remain in Chicago, given the city’s notable Polish-American population and heritage.
Jakubowski said Hejna had been a history teacher and counselor at Bogan High School when he made an important observation: Students loitering outside school would smoke no matter how many times teachers told them not to.
So Hejna, perhaps cynically, started investing in tobacco stocks. His success with them led to deeper involvement, further gains in the stock market and a legacy at UIC.
Meltdown: Charities are bracing for the fallout from the crises in the financial sector and further blows to consumer confidence.
Financial firms have been generous donors. For example, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., now in bankruptcy, and its foundation last year donated $39 million, including more than $300,000 to some 15 children’s, social services, health and culture groups in Chicago.
A Lehman report on its philanthropy showed its foundation was to pay out over 10 years, until 2014, $1 million to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business for a classroom named in honor of a late Lehman executive. The U. of C. wouldn’t speculate on how Lehman’s bankruptcy would affect the unpaid amount.
Melissa Berman, president and chief executive officer of New York-based Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, said she was sorry to see the likely end of the Lehman Foundation, which she said has been “a thoughtful, strategic giver.”
Grants: Chicago real estate investor ZevKarkomi and his wife, Shifra, are giving $2 million to the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, which will name its permanent exhibition space after their family when the facility opens next year in Skokie. The donation helped bring the center’s fundraising total to $36 million. The goal is $45 million.
Chicago lawyer Peer Pedersen is giving $1 million to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which is naming a new ground-floor restaurant at the Civic Opera House after him and his late wife, Sarah. The Pedersen Room, facing Wacker Drive, is to open in 2009 and be used by Lyric patrons on performance days. Pedersen has been a Lyric Board member since 1996.
Confab: The Chicago Global Donors Network is to hold its annual conference Tuesday and Wednesday in the downtown Standard Club. Topics are to include sustainable growth, hunger, fair trade, Muslim philanthropy, micro-lending and disaster management. For more information, go to chicagoglobaldonors.org.
archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/sep/18/news/chi-giving-0918_qsep18