Richard Lounsbery (born in New York City in 1882, died 1967) was an American businessman. The Richard Lounsbery Foundation was set up with his family's wealth. [1]
Lounsbery was born in New York City in 1882 into an affluent family. [2] His father, Richard P. Lounsbery, hailed mostly from an English family that immigrated to America during colonial times. His mother, Edith Hunter Haggin, had Turkish ancestry through her great-grandfather, [2] Ibrahim Ben Ali, a doctor who migrated from Turkey to the United States after the Russo-Turkish war. [2] The Lounsbery family amassed their wealth from the extensive business ventures of Edith's father, James Ben Ali Haggin, who played a crucial role in strengthening the United States' position in the copper industry, developing farmland in California, and contributing to legislation governing the state's water rights. [2]
Lounsbery attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from Harvard College in 1906. He then joined the Haggin family business and extended activities into new areas such as importing silk from Japan. Upon his father's death in 1912, Lounsbery decided to change fields and joined the investment firm of J. B. Harris and Company. [2]
After serving in France as an Army lieutenant during World War I, Lounsbery decided to stay there to study art. [2]
Lounsbery married Vera Victoroff, a Russian refugee in Paris, in 1928.
He was the cousin of the painter Ben Ali Haggin.
The Richard Lounsbery Foundation originated in 1959 when it was created through a trust established by the Lounsbery family. Following Richard's passing in 1967, Vera Victoroff Lounsbery collaborated with attorney Alan F. McHenry to establish a well-defined set of objectives for the foundation. [3] Today, the Richard Lounsbery Foundation is a philanthropic organization which supports novel research projects, science education, and key scientific policy issues through seed money or partial support. It distributes a total of about $2.5 million each year, mostly in grants of $25,000–$100,000. The foundation takes a special interest in cooperative activities between French and American scholars. [4]
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American industrialist and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. In his retirement, he focused his energy and wealth on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the Southern United States.
The Richard Lounsbery Foundation is a philanthropic organization located in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1959, to enhance national strengths in science and technology and to foster strong Franco-American cooperation. To this day, the foundation has stayed true to its roots while expanding to promote science among youth, and to support components of US policy issues about science. The foundation supports research projects, science education, key scientific policy issues, and others.
Lila Bell Wallace was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded Reader's Digest with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922.
The American-Turkish Council (ATC) is a business association dedicated to enhancing the promotion of US-Turkish commercial, defense, technology, and cultural relations. Its diverse membership includes Fortune 500s, multinationals, U.S. and Turkish companies, non-profit organizations, and individuals with an interest in U.S.-Turkish relations. Guided by member interests, the ATC strives to enhance growing ties between the U.S. and Turkey by increasing investment and trade through high level government relations, effective commercial engagement, and bilateral cultural education. It has been described as "a 'Turkey lobby' in Washington".
Koç is a Turkish family of business people founded by Vehbi Koç, one of the wealthiest self-made people in Turkey. His grandsons, the third generation of the Koç family, today run Turkey's largest group of companies, Koç Holding, the only Turkish company on the Fortune Global 500 list. In 2016, the family's wealth was estimated at US$8 billion, ranking them as the wealthiest family in Turkey. According to Murat Bardakçı, their lineage can be traced to Hacı Bayram-ı Veli.
Turkish Americans or American Turks are Americans of ethnic Turkish origin. The term "Turkish Americans" can therefore refer to ethnic Turkish immigrants to the United States, as well as their American-born descendants, who originate either from the Ottoman Empire or from post-Ottoman modern nation-states. The majority trace their roots to the Republic of Turkey, however, there are also significant ethnic Turkish communities in the US which descend from the island of Cyprus, the Balkans, North Africa, the Levant and other areas of the former Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, in recent years there has been a significant number of ethnic Turkish people coming to the US from the modern Turkish diaspora, especially from the Turkish Meskhetian diaspora in Eastern Europe and "Euro-Turks" from Central and Western Europe.
The Richard Lounsbery Award is given to American and French scientists, 45 years or younger, in recognition of "extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine."
A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50–100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer wealth across generations. The company's financial capital is the family's own wealth.
The Beylik of Tunis was a de facto independent state located in present-day Tunisia, formally part of the Ottoman Empire. It was ruled by the Husainid dynasty from 1705 until the establishment of the French protectorate of Tunisia in 1881. The term beylik refers to the monarch, who was called the Bey of Tunis. Under the protectorate, the institution of the Beylik was retained nominally, with the Husainids remaining as largely symbolic sovereigns.
Elmendorf Farm is a Kentucky Thoroughbred horse farm in Fayette County, Kentucky, involved with horse racing since the 19th century. Once the North Elkhorn Farm, many owners and tenants have occupied the area, even during the American Civil War. Most of the land acquired during Haggin's era has since been sold off to neighboring stud farms, but the original 765 acres including the columns and many of the historic barns and houses still exist at Elmendorf.
James Ben Ali Haggin was an American attorney, rancher, investor, art collector, and a major owner and breeder in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. Haggin made a fortune in the aftermath of the California Gold Rush and was a multi-millionaire by 1880.
Ben Ali was the winner of the 1886 Kentucky Derby and was named after his owner, James Ben Ali Haggin, a man of Turkish heritage who had struck gold in the California Gold Rush of 1849. Ben Ali was foaled in Kentucky and was a large bay colt sired by Virgil. His damsire was the great Lexington, a major foundation sire of American thoroughbreds. Ben Ali is best known for his Derby win and a wagering snafu that ushered in a bad era for the Kentucky Derby.1
Dixiana Farm, founded in 1877, is an American Thoroughbred horse breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky. It is the birthplace of Hall of Fame inductee Domino.
The Haggin Museum is an art museum and local history museum in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, located in the city's Victory Park. The museum opened in 1931. Its art collection includes works by European painters Jean Béraud, Rosa Bonheur, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, landscapes by French artists of the Barbizon school, and sculptures by René de Saint-Marceaux, Alfred Barye, and Auguste Rodin. The museum also features a number of works by Hudson River School and California landscape painters, including the largest collection of Albert Bierstadt works in the region. In 2017 it dedicated a gallery to display its collection of original artworks by J. C. Leyendecker; it is the largest public collection in the United States, with much of it donated by the artist's sister.
James Ben Ali Haggin III was an American portrait painter and stage designer.
William Haggin Perry was an American owner and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.
Lounsbury, also written Lounsbery or Lounsberry is a surname, and may refer to any one of the following:
The National Red Cross Pageant of 1917 was an American war pageant that was performed in order to sell war bonds, support the National Red Cross, and promote a positive opinion about American involvement in World War I. The live open-air pageant was presented on October 5, 1917, at the Rosemary Open Air Amphitheater on a private estate, Rosemary Farm, near Huntington, New York. The production was also captured by director Christy Cabanne as an all-star revue silent film, now considered a lost film.
Ibrahim ben Ali or after baptism Ibraham Adam Ben Ali (1756–1800), was an Ottoman-Turkish soldier and physician who first drew notice as a convert-friend of the Dublin Methodist theologian Adam Clarke, and after spending time with the minister there and in England, he emigrated to the United States.