{{short description|American real estate developer and philanthropist}} {{Infobox person | name = Harold J. Schnitzer | image = | caption = | birth_date = June 8, 1923 | birth_place = | death_date = April 27, 2011 (age 87) | death_place = | education = Massachusetts Institute of Technology | occupation = Real estate developer<br> Philanthropist | known_for = Founder of Harsch Investment Properties | networth = | children = | spouse = Arlene Schnitzer | parents = | family =Jordan Schnitzer }}
'''Harold J. Schnitzer''' (June 8, 1923 – April 27, 2011)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?n=harold-j-schnitzer&pid=150710283 |title=Harold J. Schnitzer obituary|date=May 2011|newspaper=The Oregonian}}</ref> was an American businessman, civic leader, and philanthropist. Schnitzer is best remembered for having made over $80 million in charitable gifts over the course of his lifetime, including the establishment of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon and at the University of Oregon.
==Biography== ===Early years===
Harold Schnitzer was born in 1923 to Rose and Sam Schnitzer, ethnic Jewish émigrés from Tsarist Russia.<ref name=JR>Paul Haist, [http://www.jewishreview.org/local/+Harold-Schnitzer-passes-from-scene "Harold Schnitzer Passes from Scene,"] ''Jewish Review,'' vol. 53, no. 20 (May 1, 2011), pp. 1, 30.</ref> Harold was the fifth of seven children of the couple.<ref name=JR /> The elder Schnitzer was in the scrap metal business, beginning the Alaska Junk Company.<ref name=JR />
Harold anticipated entering the steel industry from an early age, studying metallurgy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1944.<ref name=JR />
Following graduation, Schnitzer served a stint in the U.S. Army during World War II as an ordnance specialist.<ref name=UO>[http://giving.uoregon.edu/schnitzer "Harold Schnitzer: 1923–2011,"] University of Oregon Foundation, giving.uoregon.edu/</ref>
===Career=== Schnitzer worked the family business, Schnitzer Steel, from 1947 to 1950.<ref name=UO /> He did not wish to compete with his four brothers in the company, however, so in 1950 Harold Schnitzer sold his share of the business to provide capital for a new enterprise.<ref name=Legacy>{{Cite news | url=https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2011/04/from_philanthropy_to_real_estate_harold_schnitzers_accomplishments_were_vast_and.html | title=Legacy of Portland's Harold Schnitzer Extended from Real Estate to Wide-Ranging Philanthropy | work=The Oregonian | date=April 27, 2011}}</ref>
The new enterprise founded was a real estate investment company known as Harsch Investment Properties.<ref name=JR /> The name of the firm, Harsch, derived from the first three letters of Harold Schnitzer's first and last names.<ref name=UO />
Schnitzer began his career as a real estate developer with the purchase of an old warehouse in downtown Portland and its conversion into office space. Over the years Schnitzer's company grew to the point where it owned 130 properties with {{convert|21,000000|sqft|m2}} of rentable commercial space in five western states, as well as more than 1,000 apartments.<ref>Alan D. Abbey, [https://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/05/12/3087675/the-eulogizer-philanthropist-harold-schnitzer-theater-scholar-gerald-bordman "The Eulogizer: Philanthropist Harold Schnitzer..."] Jewish Telegraph Agency, May 12, 2011.</ref> At the time of his death, Harsch Investment Properties employed 225 people.<ref name=Legacy />
===Charitable giving===
From 1993 until his death in 2011, Harold Schnitzer and his wife Arlene were responsible for $80 million in charitable giving to a wide range of projects.<ref name=JR /> Some of these projects included the refurbishing of the Portland Art Museum, the creation of the [http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/diabetes/ Harold Schnitzer Diabetes Health Center] at Oregon Health and Science University, the restoration of what is today known as the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, and the establishment of the endowed Harold Schnitzer Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University and the University of Oregon.<ref name=JR />
Other prominent Oregon institutions supported by the Schnitzer family through the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation included the Oregon Zoo<ref name=Legacy /> and Oregon Public Broadcasting.<ref>[http://pressroom.opb.org/press-releases/harold-arlene-schnitzer-care-foundation-make-15-million-gift-opb/ "The Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation Make $1.5 Million Gift to OPB,"] Oregon Public Broadcasting, pressroom.opb.org/ September 17, 2007.</ref>
Schnitzer was also a financial supporter of such cultural institutions as the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Opera, and the Oregon Ballet, in addition to various educational and social service programs.<ref name=JR /> Schnitzer was also a supporter of programs within Oregon's Jewish community, including the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, the Portland Jewish Academy, and an independent and assisted living facility for elders known as Rose Schnitzer Manor.<ref name=JR />
===Death and legacy===
Harold Schnitzer died April 27, 2011, in Portland, Oregon, following a two-year battle with abdominal cancer.<ref name=UO />
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber recalled of Schnitzer that "he was incredibly easy to be around. He made you feel at ease. He was powerful and wealthy yet at ease. He didn't take himself that seriously."<ref name=Legacy />
Schnitzer was remembered by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden as "one of those really rare individuals you call a vintage Oregonian.... who almost always says when you begin to talk to him, 'What can I do to help?'"<ref name=JR />
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110529095712/http://www.harsch.com/contact-us/index.cfm Harsch Investment Properties homepage], www.harsch.com/
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schnitzer, Harold}} Category:1923 births Category:2011 deaths Category:American businesspeople Category:Jews from Oregon Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Philanthropists from Oregon Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:21st-century American Jews