Leonard Litwin facts for kids

Leonard Litwin (October 16, 1914 – April 2, 2017) was an American real estate developer. He was known for building many apartment buildings, especially in New York City. Through his company, Glenwood Management, he owned and managed about 24 buildings in Manhattan. These buildings were known for being well-built and well-managed.

About Leonard Litwin's Life

Leonard Litwin was born into a Jewish family. He started his career working with his father in the nursery business. This means they grew and sold plants.

Building High-Rise Apartments

In the 1950s, Litwin became very interested in real estate. He began building tall apartment buildings, called high-rises. Many of these were on Manhattan's Upper East Side. In the 1960s, he built The Pavilion, which was the largest luxury high-rise in the city at that time.

Later, he built Liberty Plaza. This was a 45-story apartment complex. It was the first new building to go up in Manhattan after the events of September 11, 2001.

Helping Others and Politics

Even with his success in real estate, Leonard Litwin kept his nursery business going. He ran Woodbourne Cultural Nurseries, Inc., in Melville, New York. He was turning this nursery into a large garden, or arboretum, covering over 200 acres.

Supporting Medical Research

Litwin was also very generous. With another developer, Don Zucker, he helped start the Litwin-Zucker Research Center. This center studies Alzheimer's Disease at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. He also gave a lot of support to research at several hospitals. Litwin also created The Litwin Foundation to help different causes.

Donations to Politicians

In 2012, when he was 97 years old, Litwin was one of the biggest individual donors to politicians in New York State. He gave a lot of money to help political campaigns. He used special business structures called limited liability companies (LLCs) to make these donations.

In 2017, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation honored Litwin. They renamed their research program the Litwin IBD Pioneers Initiative. This was to recognize his long-time support for people with IBD.

Family Life

Leonard Litwin was married to Ruth Litwin. She passed away in 2014. They had two daughters: Carole Litwin Pittelman and Diane Litwin Miller. Carole Litwin Pittelman later became the president of her father's company.

Leonard Litwin lived a long life and passed away on April 2, 2017, at the age of 102.

See also

• List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities