The Philanthropy 50 2009 Gift Profile: Robert Gumbiner

Biggest beneficiary: Museum of Latin American Art

Other key beneficiary: Robert Gumbiner Foundation

Donor’s background: Mr. Gumbiner was a physician who founded FHP International Corporation, a health-insurance company in Fountain Valley, Calif. He sold FHP to PacifiCare Health Systems in 1996 for approximately $2-billion.

Mr. Gumbiner, who was 85 when he died in January 2009, bequeathed nearly $28.5-million in cash to the Museum of Latin American Art, in Long Beach, Calif. Of the total, he directed $25-million to its endowment, and stipulated that only the earnings of the endowment could be used to offset the museum’s operating expenses, and that 10 percent of those earnings must be reinvested in the endowment. The remaining $3.5-million is unrestricted.

Mr. Gumbiner founded the museum in the 1990s, but began to conceive it in the early 1960s, when he first traveled to Latin America and started collecting post-World War II art from the region.

“It became apparent that it was still somewhat obscure and under-appreciated in the United States,” wrote Mr. Gumbiner in a museum statement. “A museum whose focus would be the study and exhibition of contemporary Latin American art was an institution long overdue and one that would be exciting to develop.”

In the early 1990s, Mr. Gumbiner swung into action. He purchased an old, 20,000-square-foot roller-skating rink and connected it to a former silent-movie studio to form the museum’s original exhibition spaces. He worked over the next 10 years with a team of museum consultants, designers, and architects to redesign the space, and contributed more than $40-million in personal donations and money from his foundation to complete the project. The museum opened in 1996. That same year, Mr. Gumbiner retired from the health-insurance business and devoted the rest of his life to the museum and his philanthropy.

Mr. Gumbiner also left $21.5-million in cash and real estate to endow the Robert Gumbiner Foundation, also in Long Beach. Included in that amount is his collection of contemporary Latin American art and Oceanic artworks, valued at close to $2.6-million.

Mr. Gumbiner specified that at least half the earnings from the foundation’s endowment must be used to support the Museum of Latin American Art. Museum officials said the money generated by both the museum’s and the foundation’s endowments are expected to provide 35 to 40 percent of the museum’s operating costs, which now stand at about $3.6-million annually.

In addition to his bequests, Mr. Gumbiner also established an agreement with the museum that the foundation will pay for the care and display of his art collection.

—Maria Di Mento

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