Louis Galen
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Louis "Lou" Joseph Galen (April 19, 1925 – November 12, 2007Palm Springs Cemetery District, "Interments of Interest"
/ref>) was an American
philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
. Before he retired he was a successful banker and
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of Golden West Financial Corporation.


Early life

Galen moved to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
at age 6 with his mother, Faye Roberts, from
Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...
, after his father committed suicide. He grew up in
West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped ...
, graduating from Fairfax High School.


Business career

After the war, Galen used $5,000 in military pay to help found Lynwood Savings and Loan in 1946 with his mother, Faye Roberts, and various family members (his $5,000 investment bought him 10% of the S & L's stock). At the same time he attended the University of Southern California Law School on the GI Bill, graduating with an LL.B. in 1951. He practiced law briefly, before focusing on a career in business, initially getting involved in homebuilding as well as the savings and loan industry.Stuart Silverstein
Louis Galen, 82; philanthropist, financier was USC benefactor
''Los Angeles Times'', November 13, 2007.
In 1959 his mother and Louis formed Trans World Financial Corporation as a holding company for World Savings, and he and his mother subsequently took Trans World public. By 1960, while his mother remained chairman of the board, he became president of Lynwood Savings and Loan, which changed its name to World Savings, then upon his mother's death in 1962 Louis became Chairman of Trans World. Trans World (World Savings) merged with Golden West Financial (Golden West Savings and Loan) of Oakland, California in 1975. The merged savings and loan grew into a multi-state institution. Galen retired on September 6, 2005, at age 80. A year after his retirement, Golden West Financial was acquired by Wachovia for $25 billion. In addition, Galen was separately the chairman of Transworld Bank, a commercial bank in the San Fernando Valley; it was sold to Glendale Federal in 1997. Galen followed a conservative approach to business, which provided protection from the boom-and-bust cycles that victimized many of his competitors. His corporate board at one time included Alan Greenspan, an economist who would go on to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve.


USC and philanthropy

Galen was a longtime fan of the
USC Trojans The USC Trojans (also Southern California Trojans) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ...
, buying his first football season tickets in 1947. He never played sports for USC, but had been a fan since boyhood, when he worked at the
Coliseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ...
as a
hot dog A hot dog is a grilled, steamed, or boiled sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term ''hot dog'' can also refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a frankfurter ( Frankfurter Würs ...
vendor at Trojan football games. He proposed to his wife in front of 3,000 people at a USC/ Notre Dame football rally and had the wedding band perform ''
Fight On "Fight On" is the fight song of the University of Southern California. It was composed in 1922 by USC dental student, Milo Sweet, with lyrics by Sweet and Glen Grant, for a student spirit competition. The song is played at all USC sports competiti ...
'' at his wedding. He presented her a
Spirit of Troy The USC Trojan Marching Band, nicknamed The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe (TGMBITHOTU), represents the University of Southern California (USC) at various collegiate sports, broadcast, popular music recording, and nat ...
marching band helmet on their wedding day; it was his second marriage. Galen's marriage to his first wife, the former Dena Wallerstein, with whom he had three children, ended in divorce. In 1997, Galen suffered complications after heart surgery to replace a valve and was in a coma for 42 days; after he recovered he decided that he wanted to give away most of his money. Later that year, Galen and his wife donated $1.25 million to USC to establish a student-athlete dining and social activity hall. In 2000 he donated an additional $300,000 for a ceramics studio in the USC School of Fine Arts; he also endowed the Helene V. Galen Intermedia Lab. Galen endowed the Helene and Lou Galen Professorship of Neurology, housed within Keck Medical Center of USC's department of neurology. Galen's most notable donations were to build USC's on-campus
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
and
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
arena: the 10,258 seat
Galen Center The Galen Center is a multipurpose indoor arena and athletic facility owned and operated by the University of Southern California. Located at the southeast corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street in the Exposition Park area of Los Ang ...
, which opened on October 12, 2006. USC had planned to build a substantial on-campus basketball arena for over 100 years. As a student, Galen attended USC Men's Basketball games in the
Shrine Auditorium The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975, an ...
and
Pan-Pacific Auditorium The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was a landmark structure in the Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California, Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California. It once stood near the site of Gilmore Field, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating Dodger ...
and felt that the team required a better facility. After USC football
quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
Carson Palmer Carson Hilton Palmer (born December 27, 1979) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He played college football for the USC Trojans, winning the Heisman Trophy as ...
won the 2002
Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...
, Galen donated $10 million to move the development process forward. On August 28, 2003, Galen donated an additional $25 million to the project to have the building named after himself and his wife. The Galens upped their donation an additional $15 million to make sure that a connected practice facility would also bear their name, bringing the total donation to $50 million. In addition to USC, the Galens also contributed to the
Palm Springs Art Museum The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) is a visual and performing arts institution with several locations in the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United States, founded in 1938. PSAM has been focu ...
,
Eisenhower Medical Center The Eisenhower Medical Center (EMC) now known as Eisenhower Health is a nonprofit teaching hospital based in Rancho Mirage, California, serving the Coachella Valley region of Southeastern California. It was named one of the top one hundred hospita ...
, the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center, the McCallum Theatre, the
Jewish Federation The Jewish Federation (JFED) is a secular Jewish non-profit organization found within many metropolitan areas across the United States with a significant Jewish community. They provide supportive and human services, philanthropy, financial grants ...
of Los Angeles, the Anti-Defamation League,
Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...
and
Cedars Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary, 915-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital has a staff of over 2,00 ...
.


Personal life

Galen was married for over thirty years to his wife Helene and had a family that includes five children and 11 grandchildren. He died on November 12, 2007, at his home in
Rancho Mirage Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothills ...
after a brief illness; he was 82. He is buried in the
Desert Memorial Park Desert Memorial Park is a cemetery in Cathedral City, California, United States, near Palm Springs, California, Palm Springs. Opening in 1956 and receiving its first interment in 1957,The Palm Springs Cemetery District itself was covers 504 square ...
in
Cathedral City, California Cathedral City, colloquially known as "Cat City", is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. Situated between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, the city has the second la ...
. In 2015 Helene was honored with a Golden Palm Star on the
Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
Walk of Stars A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...
.


References

* Robyn Norwood
Galen Center Time Flies When They Have Funds
''The Los Angeles Times'', October 12, 2006.

Yahoo! Finance, September 8, 2005, ''Accessed Oct. 12, 2006''.

''Trojan Family Magazine'', Winter 2003, ''Accessed Oct. 12, 2006''. * Patrick Kinmartin
Events center to open in 2006
''Daily Trojan'', August 28, 2003, ''Accessed Oct. 12, 2006''.


External links


Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Galen, Louis 1925 births 2007 deaths American chief executives of financial services companies Burials at Desert Memorial Park Fairfax High School (Los Angeles) alumni People from Rancho Mirage, California USC Gould School of Law alumni 20th-century American philanthropists