Herbert Irving (November 5, 1917 – October 3, 2016) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and art collector. He co-founded

Sysco Sysco Corporation (short for Systems and Services Company) is an American multinational corporation involved in marketing and distributing food products, smallwares, kitchen equipment and tabletop items to restaurants, healthcare and education ...

, the world's largest food distributor, and was known for his contributions to the

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

Columbia University Irving Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes ...

Biography

Irving was born on November 5, 1917, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

. He served with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and took part in the landing of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. He started his career in the

frozen food Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows decompositi ...

s business by co-founding Global Frozen Foods with a brother-in-law. He founded Sysco in 1969 with John F. Baugh and Harry Rosenthal and served as the company's vice chairman and chair of the finance committee. He stepped down as vice chairman of Sysco's board in 1992 and remained a director until 1994.

Philanthropy

After being treated by Columbia's doctors, Irving became the single largest benefactors to the

Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes Co ...

(CUMC), funding the

Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) is a National Cancer Institute NCI-designated Cancer Center, founded in 1911 and located at NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC). The HICCC has more than 25 ...

in 1995 and endowing the Irving Scholars to support those starting a career in medical research. The contributions Irving made to the medical center totaled $300 million over thirty years, beginning in 1987, when he made the first donation of $8.5 million. A dozen programs, facilities, and professorships at the CUMC are named after Irving. He and his wife were also known for their collection of Asian art. The couple donated over 1,300 objects and made donations worth over $80 million to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

to support the museum's acquisition, exhibition, and publication of Asian art. They are the namesake of The Florence and Herbert Irving Asian Wing on the North side of the museum, which includes the galleries for Chinese art, the arts of Korea, and South and Southeast Asian art. In 2017, he and his wife made a posthumous $700 million gift to Columbia to advance research and clinical programs for the treatment of cancer.

Personal life and family

He married Florence Rapoport in 1941. He died on October 3, 2016, at age 98.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irving, Herbert 1917 births 2016 deaths American company founders Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni American philanthropists Businesspeople from Brooklyn American art collectors