HOUR Detroit's 2010 Detroiters of the Year

July 29, 2010
Philanthropists help keep afloat the city’s cultural, humanitarian, and educational jewels, which could very well sink without their time and money. But to them, it’s not just giving, but giving back, that motivates their generosity.

By Sheryl James
HOUR Detroit Magazine

For Al Taubman, it all started in the 1930s with that little blue tin box.

Most Jewish families had one of those boxes. They were used for collections for the Jewish homeland in Israel, Taubman says of his boyhood days in Pontiac, “and we collected change. When I went to the store for my mother and came back, she’d say, ‘Put the change in the box.’ And when the box got filled, she gave it to whoever was in charge in those days. They planted trees and bought land in Israel. This was in the ’30s and ’40s, and we didn’t have a lot of money in those days.

“That was the first real philanthropy I ever saw.”

It was hardly the last. Taubman is widely recognized as one of metro Detroit’s most generous philanthropists. He’s a primary supporter of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), the College for Creative Studies (CCS), the University of Michigan (U-M), and a host of other places.
Taubman’s roots are not unlike those of another philanthropist, Maggie Allesee, who has supported Oakland University, Wayne State University (WSU), Hospice of Michigan, the Detroit Historical Society, Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT), and Henry Ford Hospice’s SandCastles, a grief-support program for young people — among other institutions...

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