An Anti-Trump in Boston Gives $100 million to Health Care

What Decent and Caring and Compassionate Wealthy People Do

During the 2016 campaign it became apparent that Donnie had a foundation that existed solely to benefit Donnie. By twisting and turning the charitable giving rules he was able to use a supposedly charitable foundation to enrich himself. But not all wealthy folks are like Donnie, case in point being the Hales' of Boston.

Brigham and Children’s hospitals each get $50m gift

Robert Hale Jr. still remembers the impossibly tiny baby girl he saw more than a decade ago, hooked to tubes and monitors at Boston Children’s Hospital, where Hale, a hospital donor, was taking his first tour.

The moment stayed with Hale, the chief executive of Quincy-based Granite Telecommunications, and his wife, Karen, sparking a desire to do more to help the sick.

Now they’re committing $100 million to two Boston health care institutions: $50 million for Children’s and $50 million for Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

These are hospitals where you go when you really need the best medical care in the world. And while the U. S. health care system has much to answer for, at the extreme end it is excellent and available in many (but not all) cases to people without regard to their ability to afford it.

Academic medical centers like Children’s and Brigham, two Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area, are among the biggest and most complicated businesses in the state. They treat complex cases and also conduct biomedical research and train young doctors. They are structured as nonprofits, courting and relying on generous donors, in addition to what they collect in insurance payments and research grants.

As for the giving philosophy, imagine the following being said about Trump or the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson or any of the others who see their great wealth as a means to impose their ugly viewpoints on America. You can't, can you.

Douglas A. Berthiaume, vice chairman of the Children’s Hospital board, said Hale is a believer that “we all should be giving till it hurts.”

Berthiaume, the former chief executive of Milford-based Waters Corp., is another major donor for Children’s. His family provided the hospital’s previous $50 million gift, the largest of several donations they made over many years, he said.

John Fish, the chief executive of Suffolk Construction and chairman of Brigham’s board, said Hale is known not just for writing checks but for committing time to causes that are important to him.

“Sometimes it’s more difficult to provide the time,” said Fish, who calls Hale a close friend. “Rob does both. Rob Hale is one of the . . . most respected individuals in the New England business community.”