Who is Eli Broad's wife Edythe? Inside couple's love story and their shared passion for art and philanthropy
Eli Broad, one of the world's greatest philanthropists died on Friday, April 30. The billionaire was ranked as the 233rd wealthiest person in the world in 2019 by Forbes. The 87-year-old entrepreneur was known for his work in promoting education, especially scientific and medical research, alongside visual and performing arts. Broad amassed his wealth by creating two Fortune 500 companies in two different industries. He developed KB Home, a prominent real estate and development company, and launched insurance giant SunAmerica.
Broad had committed more than $5 billion to support research, the arts and K-12 education. In addition to co-founding the Broad Museum, Broad also developed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He also created various other institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Broad Institute, a genomic medicine research center. Eli's wife Edythe Broad too was passionate about various philanthropic causes. Eli is survived by his loving wife and their two children, Jeffrey and Gary. Read on to know more about the billionaire entrepreneur's widow Edythe.
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Edythe Broad's early life
Edythe was born in 1936 in Detroit. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a chemist. Today Edythe is well-known as a prolific art collector, her interest in art is well known as she began collecting artworks at a very early age. While she was still in school, Edythe reportedly enjoyed attending school trips to the Detroit Institute of Arts. She was drawn to John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark, and Picasso's Three Musicians.
Marriage to Eli Broad
Eli and Edythe Broad finish one another’s sentences, love to travel and appreciate nothing more than a quiet evening in, described a profile on the couple on Haute Living. She met Eli when she still a teenager. Eli proposed to his future wife just after going on a few dates. They married in 1954 and stayed married until his death in 2021. In 1954, the then-21-year-old Michigan State University student convinced a friend to give him 18-year-old Edye Lawson’s phone number. She had no idea who he was but said yes anyway—because her mother pressured her into it. Eli always had a passion for setting up his own business, so Edythe's father loaned his son-in-law some money to set up his venture. The business turned out to be a massive success and quickly made the young couple very wealthy, which they continued to invest in other businesses.
Edythe's contribution to philanthropy
Just like her husband, Edythe too was passionate about education and research. The couple created The Broad Foundations. Just like many of their wealthy peers, the Broads too signed onto The Giving Pledge, a commitment for wealthy individuals to give at least half of their wealth to charity. The couple committed to giving away 75% of their wealth. In fact, he is quoted as saying that “Edye was the first collector in our family, and I came along later—later being some fifty odd years ago,” says Eli. “All of [our art] reminds me of Edye, because she was the first collector…and she was my inspiration to collect art,” he had said.
Through their Broad foundation, they helped several students from low-income communities to tap into their full potential by exposing them to quality education.They also donated huge sums of money to various higher education organizations and research bodies to support their work. Some of their notable contributions include a huge donation made to Michigan State University, where Eli studied accounting. In 2003, they gave a $100 million founding gift to create the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, which was to focus on genomics research. In 2007, the Broads contributed $20 million to the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. Then, in 2008, they gave a major gift to the University of California, San Francisco for the new headquarters of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, which opened in February 2011.
The couple has been well-recognized for their generosity and humanitarian efforts. In 2018, they received the American Federation of the Arts Cultural Leadership award.