Ronald Lauterstein
In 2007, the Mailman School received a bequest of $23.4 million from beloved alumnus and longtime benefactor Ronald H. Lauterstein, MS ’58. This landmark donation represents one of Columbia University’s largest endowment gifts in support of faculty development. With a portion of this bequest, the Columbia trustees established the Ronald H. Lauterstein Professorship of Sociomedical Sciences, currently held by David Rosner.
In his professional life, Mr. Lauterstein co-founded and served as the president of COMCARE, a major multisite provider of nursing and home care services throughout Canada. A native New Yorker, he received an AB from New York University’s School of Public Administration, additional specialized training and education from both Cornell University’s Sloan Institute of Hospital Administration and the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health, as well as an MS from the Mailman School. He was an associate member of the American Hospital Association.
For many years, Mr. Lauterstein was an esteemed member of both the Mailman School’s Board of Overseers and the Alumni Executive Board. In 1994, he received the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award and, in 1996, he was the recipient of Columbia University’s Alumni Federation Medal for Conspicuous Alumni Service. In addition to his generous bequest, Mr. Lauterstein established the Lauterstein Scholars Program to support research and policy development on aging, as well as a student scholarship named in honor of Doris Nickerson, his companion of many years.