Mortimer Sackler
Mortimer Sackler entrepreneur | |
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Known for | Purdue Pharma |
Spouses | |
Children | 8 |
Relatives |
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Family | Sackler |
Mortimer David Sackler
After Sackler's death, his family's company became embroiled in a scandal about its role in the
Early life
Mortimer Sackler was the second son of Jewish immigrants Isaac Sackler, who was born in what is now Ukraine, and Sophie (née Greenberg) Sackler from Poland.[4] His father was a grocer in Brooklyn, where Sackler attended Erasmus Hall High School.[4] He had two brothers;[9] Arthur, the oldest of the three, died in 1987, and Raymond, the youngest, died in 2017.[6]
Education
Sackler attended the
Early career
During the
Pharmaceuticals
In 1952, Mortimer and Raymond became the co-chairmen of a small Greenwich Village-based pharmaceutical company that Arthur had financed. The Purdue Frederick Company later became the Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma.[4] With Raymond, he established pharmaceutical companies[4] in Austria, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK.[10]
Purdue Pharma
At the time of Arthur Sackler's death in 1987, Purdue Pharma was a small drug company.
Philanthropy
The Sackler name was displayed at numerous cultural and educational institutions in the United States and in Europe including "Harvard, the Smithsonian and the Sackler Wing at the
Sackler established the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation[19] jointly with third wife, Dame Theresa Elizabeth Sackler. The foundation's donations include the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex.[20] and a contribution to the Imaging Centre of Excellence [21] at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, containing Scotland's first 7 Tesla MRI.
On December 9, 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, along with the Sackler family, announced the removal of the Sackler family name from seven named galleries, including the wing that houses the iconic Temple of Dendur.[8]
Honors
In 1995, Sackler was made an
The Mortimer Sackler rose was named in his honor by his wife, Theresa, after she won the naming rights in a charity auction.[22] However, in 2022, the rose was renamed Mary Delany by David Austin Roses in honor of Mary Delany, an artist known for her paper-cut plant drawings. The registration name of the rose is Ausorts.[23]
Personal life
Sackler married three times. His first wife was Glasgow-born Muriel Lazarus (1917–2009); the couple had three children before divorcing, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt (b. 1948 m. Gerald B. Lefcourt), Kathe A. Sackler, (married to Susan Shack Sackler), and Robert Mortimer Sackler (predeceased).[24] His second wife was Gertraud "Geri" Wimmer;[2] the marriage produced two children before their divorce, Mortimer David Alfons Sackler, and Samantha Sophia Sackler Hunt. In 1980, he married his third wife, Theresa Elizabeth Rowling (b. 1949),[17] from Staffordshire, England who was formerly a teacher at the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion convent in London's Notting Hill Gate. In 2011, Rowling became Dame Theresa Sackler for her work as philanthropist.[25] The couple had three children, Marissa Sackler, Sophia Sackler (m. Jamie Dalrymple) and Michael Sackler who were raised in London.[25] Theresa was a member of the board of directors of Purdue Pharma.[17]
Sackler lived in London from 1974, when he renounced his American citizenship;[4][6] he also spent time at his other properties including his estate on the Berkshire Downs, Rooksnest, Lambourn Woodlands , Berkshire with nineteen acres of ornate gardens by designer Arabella Lennox-Boyd.[26][Notes 1] and in their residences in the Swiss Alps, and the French Riviera.[6]
According to a February 13, 2018, article in The Guardian, Mortimer Sackler had seven surviving children, three of whom were on the board of directors of the company he co-founded, Purdue Pharma—Ilene Sackler, Kathe A. Sackler, and Mortimer David Alfons Sackler, (b. 1972) and four who are not—Samantha Sophia Sackler Hunt, Marissa Sackler, Sophie Sackler, and Michael Sackler.[17]
Death
Sackler died at age 93 on March 24, 2010, in Gstaad, Bern, Switzerland, survived by his wife and their son and two daughters, as well as four children from his previous two marriages.[3]
Involvement in the opioid crisis
On October 30, 2017,
See also
Notes
- ^ A cited in Mortimer Sackler's obituary in The Sunday Times, In 2002, as part of a charity auction she named a new rose cultivar bred by David Austin, after Mortimer, because of the quality of giving the "impression of delicacy and softness but are, in fact, very tough and little affected by bad weather".
References
- ^ NYT obituary
- ^ a b Sortedbyname.com
- ^ a b c d Maugh II, Thomas H. (19 April 2010). "Mortimer Sackler dies at 93; arts patron was co-owner of Purdue Pharma". Obituary. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
Purdue Pharma developed the painkiller OxyContin, which had sales of $3 billion by 2001. Sackler used profits from the firm to fund arts and universities in the U.S. and Europe.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Weber, Bruce (31 March 2010). "Mortimer D. Sackler, Arts Patron, Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ a b Glazek, Christopher (16 October 2017). "The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis". Esquire. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
- ^ ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- The Financial Times. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- ^ ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Dalyell, Tam (31 March 2010). "Doctor Mortimer Sackler: Philanthropist who repaid many times over the debt he felt he owed Britain". The Independent. Obituary. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
Member, Chancellor's Court of Benefactors, Oxford University from 1993; PhD Tel Aviv 1980; Officier, Légion d'Honneur 1997; honorary KBE 1999; Honorary Fellow, King's College, London 2001
- ^ "The University of Glasgow Story: Mortimer Sackler". Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ^ "Drugs mogul with a vast philanthropic legacy". Financial Times. 23 April 2010. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ^ Green, David B. (24 March 2015). "This Day in Jewish History 2010: You've Been to at Least One Museum Wing That Was Named for This Man". Haaretz. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ^ "OxyContin® (oxycodone HCl) Extended-Release Tablets | Official Site for Patients & Caregivers". www.oxycontin.com. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
- ^ a b c "#19 Sackler family $13B". Forbes. 2016 America's Richest Families Net Worth. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
- ^ "A New Public Gallery: The Royal Parks and the Serpentine Gallery Agree to New Venue". artdaily.org. 2 November 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ "King's College London – Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
- ^ "The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation, registered charity no. 1128926". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
- ^ "About Dame Theresa Sackler". Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. University of Sussex. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ^ "Scotland's first 7T scanner arrives at the QEUH". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
- ^ Weber, Bruce (April 2010). "Mortimer D. Sackler, Arts Patron, Dies at 93". The New York Times.
- ^ "'Mortimer Sackler' Rose".
- ^ "SACKLER—Muriel Lazarus, (1917–2009), died peacefully surrounded by her family on October 7, 2009". The New York Times. 9 October 2009.
- ^ a b "Billionaire philanthropist Sackler was tax avoider on industrial scale". Evening Standard. 5 November 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
Sources
External links
- Dame Theresa Sackler profile, checkcompany.co.uk; accessed 16 June 2016