{{Short description|American businessman and philanthropist (1928–2025)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Leonard Tow | image = Leonard Tow - Theatre for a New Audience 2024 Gala.jpg | image_size = 240 | caption = Tow in 2024 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1928|5|30}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|8|10|1928|5|30}} | death_place = New Canaan, Connecticut, U.S. | alma_mater = Brooklyn College (BA) <br />Columbia University (PhD) | occupation = businessman, philanthropist | known_for = CEO and Chairman of Citizens Communications | spouse = {{marriage|Claire Schneider|1952|2014|end=died}} | children = 3 | father = | awards = Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy (2019) }}
'''Leonard Tow''' (May 30, 1928 – August 10, 2025) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman and CEO of Citizens Communications (now Frontier Communications) and chairman of Electric Lightwave.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=July 23, 2021 |title=Leonard Tow 2000 Oral and Video History |url=https://www.cablecenter.org/the-barco-library/the-hauser-oral-history-project/t-v-listings/leonard-tow.html |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723084313/https://www.cablecenter.org/the-barco-library/the-hauser-oral-history-project/t-v-listings/leonard-tow.html |archive-date=July 23, 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author1=Mike Farrell |date=July 19, 2004 |title=Leonard Tow Steps Down at Citizens |url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/leonard-tow-steps-down-citizens-152869 |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Multichannel News |language=en}}</ref> He also co-founded Century Communications, which was sold to Adelphia Communications Corporation for $5.2 billion in 1999 and became part of Cablevision.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=Peter W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fk3ucyrGbnwC&dq=%22forbes+400%22+%22leonard+tow%22&pg=PA165 |title=All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make--and Spend--their Fortunes |last2=Swan |first2=Annalyn |date=2008 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-307-27876-0 |language=en}}</ref>
== Background == Tow was born in Brooklyn on May 30, 1928, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia.<ref name = Gabriel>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/business/media/leonard-tow-dead.html|title = Leonard Tow, Cable TV Magnate and a Major Philanthropist, Dies at 97|last = Gabriel|first = Trip|date = August 13, 2025|accessdate = August 13, 2025|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The manufacturing economy of Southern Rhodesia: problems and prospects.|first=Leonard|last=Tow|date=April 30, 1960|publisher=National Academy of Sciences National Research Council|oclc=187849 }}</ref> He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College and Ph.D. from Columbia University in economic geography.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Largest gifts in Barnard history to support new teaching and learning center |url=https://barnard.edu/news/historicgifts |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Barnard College |language=en}}</ref>
==Career== Tow began his career as an instructor at Columbia Business School before leaving for the private sector. Tow worked for Touche Ross & Company and then became an assistant to Irving B. Kahn and eventually becoming SVP of TelePrompTer Corporation. He left TelePrompTer to found his own telecommunications company, Century Communications, which grew to become the nation’s fifth-largest cable television company at the time of its sale in 1999.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=August 9, 2019 |title=Tow, Leonard |url=https://www.medalofphilanthropy.org/leonard-tow/ |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy |language=en-US}}</ref> He was also elected as chairman and CEO of Citizens Communications, serving in those positions from 1989 to 2004 and was a director of Adelphia Communications Corporation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Adelphia's Leonard Tow Resigns |url=https://apnews.com/article/4dde0ed7cd999eeb508db9da2a4c2a9f |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cowan |first=Alison Leigh |date=July 11, 1993 |title=Boards Protect Shareholders, Right? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/11/business/boards-protect-shareholders-right.html |access-date=April 27, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
Having retired from the cable industry, Tow began to focus on philanthropic activities through the Tow Foundation, which was founded in 1988.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Claire and Leonard Tow - The Giving Pledge |url=https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=301 |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Giving Pledge |language=en}}</ref> The foundation focuses on improving medical care and research, helping disadvantaged youths and reforming the juvenile justice system, as well as funding cultural institutions and the performing arts programs at higher education institutions in the tri-state New York Metropolitan area.<ref name=":2" /> Tow took a particular interest in the arts and was an avid theatergoer: his daughter, Emily, said that "Some weeks he'd see three or four plays, from a basement in the Lower East Side to the fanciest Broadway production", and continued attending plays until the final weeks of his life.<ref name = Gabriel/>
Tow supported higher education institutions such as Bard College, Barnard College, Brooklyn College, Columbia University, City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, University at Buffalo, University of New Haven, and Wesleyan University, as well as medical institutions such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, and the New York Genome Center.<ref>{{Cite web |title=» Grant Tags » Higher Education |url=https://www.towfoundation.org/grant_tag/higher-education/page/5/ |access-date=April 27, 2022}}</ref>
In 2012, Tow and his wife signed The Giving Pledge, a public commitment to give away 50% of their wealth or more during their lifetimes or upon their death.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carlyle |first=Erin |title=Meet the Eight Forbes 400 Billionaires Who Just Signed the Giving Pledge |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2012/09/18/forbes-400-billionaires-whove-signed-the-giving-pledge/ |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> Tow was a longtime member of the Forbes 400.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Forbes 400 List of Wealthiest Americans |url=https://apnews.com/article/78e27c5e1e03b1a91f23d64735a6c65c |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kowtowed? |url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/0527/046.html |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref>
Tow was a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2019.<ref name=":1" /><ref>[https://westfaironline.com/fairfield/leonard-tow-philanthropist-and-cable-tv-and-communications-entrepreneur-dies-at-97/ Philanthropist and cable TV and communications entrepreneur Leonard Tow dies at 97]</ref>
== Personal life and death == In 1952, Tow married Claire Schneider (1929–2014),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.towfoundation.org/claire-tow-co-founder-and-vice-president-dies-at-83/|title=» Claire Tow, Co-Founder and Vice President, Dies At 83}}</ref> whom he met in college, and was a co-founder of Century Communications.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brooklyn College Remembers Claire Tow '52 |url=http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/news/bcnews/bcnews_140710.php |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=www.brooklyn.cuny.edu |date=July 10, 2014 |language=en}}</ref> She died in 2014 from Lou Gehrig's disease.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Advertiser |first=New Canaan |date=July 8, 2014 |title=Obituary: Claire Tow, 83, cable co. founder, philanthropist |url=https://www.ncadvertiser.com/past_obituaries/article/Obituary-Claire-Tow-83-cable-co-founder-14037956.php |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=New Canaan Advertiser |language=en-US}}</ref> The couple had three children. Their son, Andrew, is the owner of The Withers, a winery based in Sonoma County, California.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Teague |first=Lettie |date=February 19, 2015 |title=The Withers Winery Sprang From a Personal Venture by Executive Andrew Tow |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-withers-winery-sprang-from-a-personal-venture-by-executive-andrew-tow-1424389941 |access-date=April 27, 2022 |issn=0099-9660}}</ref> Their daughter, Emily Tow Jackson, is the President of the Tow Foundation and has served as a trustee of Barnard College, from which she graduated in 1988.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scholarship Gala honoree and Trustee Emily Tow Jackson '88 on tackling social problems through philanthropy |url=https://barnard.edu/news/scholarship-gala-honoree-and-trustee-emily-tow-jackson-88-tackling-social-problems-through |access-date=April 27, 2022 |website=Barnard College |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=West |first=Melanie Grayce |date=April 18, 2013 |title=Family Foundation Is Honored at Barnard |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323809304578429042363169514.html |access-date=May 22, 2022 |issn=0099-9660}}</ref>
Tow died at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut, on August 10, 2025, at the age of 97.<ref name = Gabriel/>
== References == <references /> ==External links== *{{IMDb name| 5840505}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tow, Leonard}} Category:1928 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:21st-century American Jews Category:American cable television company founders Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American businesspeople in the telecommunications industry Category:Brooklyn College alumni Category:Businesspeople from Brooklyn Category:Columbia Business School faculty Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:Frontier Communications Category:People from New Canaan, Connecticut