February 10, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
Amount donated in 2013: $67.3-million
Beneficiary: Mayo Clinic
Background: Mr. Kern founded Generac Power Systems, a generator-manufacturing company in Waukesha, Wis.
Robert Kern first came to the Mayo Clinic as a 5-year-old patient in 1930. It was the beginning of the Great Depression, and Mr. Kern’s father, a minister with little money, could not pay for his sick little boy’s treatment. The Mayo Clinic provided that care for free.
Nowadays, the former patient is gratefully giving back.
Mr. and Ms. Kern, ages 88 and 85, respectively, pledged $67.3-million to the Mayo Clinic’s Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery last year and have stipulated that most of the donation, $54.3-million, be used to support the center’s operational costs. The couple has directed $10-million toward endowing five scientific-director positions, and the remaining $3-million will support the center’s online education programs.
“Our desire is that the center will establish new standards for more effective, efficient care and bringing the dream of health care for all to reality,” said Mr. Kern when the gift was announced in October.
The couple gave Mayo $20-million in 2011 to establish the center, and the institution named the center for them after this most recent pledge.
The Philanthropy 50: Browse the full list of America’s most generous donors in 2013.
Learn more: See this donor’s listing in our database of major gifts, America’s Top Donors.
