Leon Levy (September 13, 1925 – April 6, 2003)
April 8, 2003. was an American investor,
mutual fund manager, and philanthropist. At his death, Forbes magazine called him “a Wall Street investment genius,” who helped create both mutual funds and hedge funds.
Early life and education
Born to a
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
family, Levy attended
Townsend Harris High School
Townsend Harris High School (THHS; often also shortened to Townsend Harris or simply Townsend) is a public high school for the humanities in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the campus of Queens College, a public college p ...
and studied psychology at
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...
. After serving in the
U.S. Army, he began working as a research analyst. He was strongly influenced in his business approach by his father, Jerome Levy, an economist and business executive who emphasized the role corporate profits play in charting the economy's direction.
Investment career
In 1956 he became a partner of
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc, then in 1959 Levy co-founded the Oppenheimer
mutual funds
A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in Europe ('investmen ...
. There he started dozens of mutual funds that, at his death, had grown to manage more than $120 billion. In 1982, he sold both companies to the U.K.'s Mercantile House for $162 million and co-founded Odyssey Partners, a private investment partnership. It grew to be a $3 billion hedge fund before it was dissolved in 1997.
Wealth and philanthropy
In 1986, to honor his father, he founded the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, now the
Levy Institute, at
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
in
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The Levy Institute has established itself as a sponsor of extensive work in
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
and
post-Keynesian economics
Post-Keynesian economics is a Schools of economic thought, school of economic thought with its origins in ''The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, The General Theory'' of John Maynard Keynes, with subsequent development influence ...
. In the last year of his life, Levy commuted up the
Hudson River
The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
from New York City to teach a class at the Levy Institute, "Contemporary Developments in Finance", in which he focused on his belief that investing is as much a psychological as it is an economic act.
When he died in his late seventies, Levy was estimated to be worth a billion dollars, though his personal wealth might have been substantially higher were it not for his philanthropic interests.
Levy's philanthropy began in the 1950s, when he established the Jerome Levy Foundation, which still exists, giving grants to human rights and land preservation organizations. His donations grew steadily, and during his lifetime, Levy and his wife,
Shelby White, gave away more than $200 million, becoming well known for their philanthropic efforts. They donated $20 million to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
for the construction of the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a gallery hosting the largest selection of
Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
and
Roman artwork ever exhibited at that museum. The gallery included a number of pieces from Levy and White's substantial art collection, which also includes art from the
Near East
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
. Between 1997 and 2003, Levy and White donated nearly $5 million to 107 scholars for the publication of archaeological excavations that had been completed but never published. The projects funded by their program, the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, include excavations at some of the highest profile archaeological sites throughout
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, including
Knossos
Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...
,
Aphrodisias,
Kition,
Ras Shamra,
Sarepta,
Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim ( ; ; ; , or ) is one of two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the State of Palestine, Palestinian city of Nablus and the biblical city of Shechem. It forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the nor ...
,
Ekron,
Lachish,
Megiddo,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
,
Pella
Pella () is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It served as the capital of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. Currently, it is located 1 km outside the modern town of Pella ...
,
Jerash
Jerash (; , , ) is a city in northern Jordan. The city is the administrative center of the Jerash Governorate, and has a population of 50,745 as of 2015. It is located 30.0 miles north of the capital city Amman.
The earliest evidence of sett ...
, the
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...
,
Assur
Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...
,
Nineveh
Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...
,
Nuzi, and
Tepe Hissar.
They also funded the Leon Levy Expedition at
Ashkelon
Ashkelon ( ; , ; ) or Ashqelon, is a coastal city in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip.
The modern city i ...
,
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
; created the Leon Levy Visitor Center at the
New York Botanical Garden; and financed the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for Mind Brain and Behavior at
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...
, where Levy was a member of the Board. Levy also served as President of the Board of the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
, Vice Chairman of the Institute of Fine Arts at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, and was a director of
Bard College
Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
, and many other not-for-profit boards.

The Leon Levy Foundation and Shelby White, as Chairman of the Friends of the
Israel Antiquities Authority, provided the funds for conserving the extraordinarily well-preserved
Lod Mosaic and established the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center, which will house the mosaic once it returns from its 2010-2016 international exhibition tour.
After his death in 2003, Levy's philanthropy was continued through the
Leon Levy Foundation, and one of its earliest initiatives was the fulfillment of that plan. In spring, 2006, the Leon Levy Foundation pledged $200 million to New York University for the creation of the
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a center for advanced scholarly research and graduate education, intended to cultivate cross-cultural study of the ancient world, from the western
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
.
Antiquities controversy
The donation created controversy among some academics who believe that collectors of antiquities encourage the looting of ancient sites. In their 2006 book ''The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities – From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums'',
Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini lay out the dynamics of the illegal trade in
antiquities
Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean such as the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt, and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures such as Ancient Persia (Iran). Artifact ...
and use Leon Levy and Shelby White as an example of collectors whose purchases may have led to unethical dealing in artifacts.
One
NYU professor, Randall White, resigned from NYU's existing Center for Ancient Studies – which is independent of the new
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World – saying that he opposed the acceptance of a donation from a foundation whose benefactor had sometimes been associated with such questionable practices and trafficking. Several scholars outside NYU, notably from
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...
, the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
and the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...
, also commented negatively on NYU's acceptance of the gift. Many other scholars, however, supported the institute and the gift. Professor James McCredie, of the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU's graduate teaching and advanced research center for art history, wrote a letter to Provost David McLaughlin endorsing the project. It was signed by IFA's seven professors of ancient art and architecture, and the controversy soon died out.
Legacy and awards
In 2008, he was inducted into Institutional Investors Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame along with
Alfred Jones,
Bruce Kovner,
David Swensen,
George Soros
George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...
,
Jack Nash,
James Simons,
Julian Roberston,
Kenneth Griffin,
Louis Bacon,
Michael Steinhardt,
Paul Tudor Jones,
Seth Klarman and
Steven A. Cohen.
Publications and works
In 2002, Levy published a memoir, written with Eugene Linden, called ''The Mind of Wall Street: A Legendary Financier on the Perils of Greed and the Mysteries of the Market'' (Perseus Book Group).
''The Mind of Wall Street '' at Amazon.
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See also
* List of City College of New York alumni
References
External links
Leon Levy Foundation website
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
The Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications
Forbes.com: Forbes 400 Richest in America 2002
"Challenge: How vulnerable is Wall Street?"
Leon Levy interview, Nov-Dec, 1998
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Leon
1925 births
2003 deaths
Jewish American bankers
Businesspeople from Queens, New York
American bankers
American billionaires
City College of New York alumni
Art and cultural repatriation
Townsend Harris High School alumni
Philanthropists from New York (state)
20th-century American philanthropists
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews