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Philanthropist,
shopping
mall
developer
Al
Taubman
dies at
91
BLOOMFIELD
HILLS,
MI - A.
Alfred
Taubman,
the
self-made
Michigan
billionaire
whose
philanthropy
and
business
success
-
including
weaving
the
enclosed
shopping
mall
into
American
culture
- was
clouded
by a
criminal
conviction
late in
his
career,
has
died. He
was 91.
Taubman,
who
donated
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars
to
universities,
hospitals
and
museums,
died
Friday
night at
his home
of a
heart
attack,
according
to son
Robert
S.
Taubman,
president
and CEO
of
Taubman
Centers,
Inc.
"This
company
and all
that you
stand
for were
among
the
greatest
joys of
his
life,"
Robert
S.
Taubman
wrote in
a
message
to the
company's
employees.
"He was
so proud
of what
this
wonderful
company
he
founded
65 years
ago has
accomplished."
Taubman's
business
success
spanned
from
real
estate
and art
houses
to the
hot
dog-serving
A&W
restaurant
chain,
for
which he
traveled
to
Hungary
to
figure
out why
the
country's
sausage
was so
good. He
also
became a
major
backer
of stem
cell
research.
But it
was his
rearrangement
of how
people
shop -
parking
lot in
front,
several
stores
in one
stop
close to
home -
that
left a
mark on
American
culture.
Taubman
Centers,
a
subsidiary
of his
Taubman
Co.,
founded
in 1950,
currently
owns and
manages
19
regional
shopping
centers
nationwide.
"Everything
that
excited
me that
I got
interested
in, I
did,"
Taubman
told The
Associated
Press in
a 2007
interview.
Born
Jan. 31,
1924, in
Pontiac,
Michigan,
to
German-Jewish
immigrants,
Taubman
worked
at a
department
store
after
school
near his
family's
home,
which
was
among
the
custom
houses
and
commercial
buildings
developed
in the
area by
his
father.
He was a
freshman
at the
University
of
Michigan
when he
left to
serve in
World
War II,
around
the time
he
stopped
using
his
first
name,
Adolph.
When he
returned
to Ann
Arbor to
study
art and
architecture,
he
created
small
on-campus
businesses
to cover
expenses,
then
transferred
to
Lawrence
Technological
University
near
Detroit
to take
night
classes
while
working
at an
architectural
firm as
a junior
draftsman.
Recognizing
the
booming
post-war
growth
of the
middle
class,
particularly
in the
Motor
City, he
launched
his
first
real
estate
development
company
in 1950.
His
first
project
was a
freestanding
bridal
shop in
Detroit
- but he
had his
eyes on
something
bigger.
He'd
noticed
shoppers
responding
to the
convenience
of
"one-stop
comparison
shopping
opportunity,"
he wrote
in his
autobiography.
So when
a friend
suggested
a
shopping
plaza in
Flint,
Taubman's
company
did
something
radical
for the
time:
stores
were
pushed
to the
back of
the lot
and
parking
spaces
were put
up
front.
It was a
success
and his
young
company
took on
larger-scale
developments
in
Michigan,
California
and
elsewhere
in the
1950s
and
early
'60s.
Taubman
served
as
chairman
of
Sotheby's
Holdings,
Inc.,
parent
company
of
Sotheby's
art
auction
house,
from
1983 to
2000,
and was
a
partner
in
international
real
estate
firm The
Athena
Group
before
he was
tangled
in a
price-fixing
scheme.
He was
convicted
in 2001
of
conspiring
with
Anthony
Tennant,
former
chairman
of
Christie's
International,
to fix
the
commissions
the
auction
giants
charged.
Prosecutors
alleged
sellers
were
bilked
of as
much as
$400
million
in
commissions.
Taubman
was
fined
$7.5
million
and
spent
about a
year in
a
low-security
prison
in
Rochester,
Minnesota,
but long
insisted
he was
innocent
and
expressed
regret
for not
testifying
in his
own
defense.
"I had
lost a
chunk of
my life,
my good
name and
around
27
pounds,"
he
recalled
in his
book,
saying
he was
forced
to take
the fall
for
others.
The case
cast a
shadow
over
Taubman's
accomplishments,
but it
diminished
over the
years -
and his
philanthropy
continued
unabated.
He had
pledged
$100
million
to the
University
of
Michigan's
A.
Alfred
Taubman
Medical
Research
Institute
and its
stem-cell
research
by 2011.
He also
financed
public
policy
programs
at
Harvard,
Brown
University
and the
University
of
Michigan,
which
received
several
large
donations.
Taubman
"had one
of the
biggest
hearts
in
America,"
former
Detroit
Mayor
Dennis
Archer
told WWJ-AM.
On
Wednesday,
two days
before
his
death,
Taubman
smiled
and
lifted
his hat
while in
a
wheelchair
during a
groundbreaking
in Ann
Arbor
for a
campus
building
project.
"The
University
of
Michigan,
and the
opportunities
we
provide
to our
students,
would
not be
the same
without
Mr.
Taubman,"
President
Mark
Schlissel
said
Saturday.
Taubman
donated
millions
and
spoke
passionately
in
support
of the
2008
ballot
initiative
in
Michigan
that
eased
restrictions
on
embryonic
stem
cell
research
and
enabled
his
namesake
institute
to
conduct
major
research
for
diseases
-
including
amyotrophic
lateral
sclerosis,
or Lou
Gehrig's
disease,
which
claimed
the life
of his
good
friend,
New York
Sen.
Jacob
Javits,
in 1986.
After
turning
over
control
of
Taubman
Centers
to his
two
sons,
Taubman
made
sustaining
the
Detroit
Institute
of Arts
a
priority.
His
knowledge
of how
shoppers
negotiated
malls
was
tapped
to help
reconfigure
the flow
of the
museum,
and he
helped
guide
the DIA
as
president
of the
Detroit
Arts
Commission
through
chronic
financial
problems. |