February 8, 2015 | Read Time: 1 minute
Amount donated in 2014: $50-million
Beneficiary: David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles
Background: Mr. Switzer was a real-estate investor and the founder of Norman Bench Advertising, which used bus-stop benches for advertisements.
Mr. Switzer, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, and his wife, Irma, who died in 2013 at 93, left $50-million to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The gift is unrestricted, but university officials said they plan to use the money to support students and faculty and to establish the Switzer Prize for Biomedical Discovery. The prize will be awarded to researchers anywhere in the world who have significantly advanced medical and health research.
The Switzers were not graduates of UCLA but were patients at the Geffen School’s medical center.
