Gerson Bakar

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Gerson Bakar
Born	Gerson Philip Bakar (1928-03-12)March 12, 1928 Petaluma, California, U.S.
💀Died	June 5, 2017(2017-06-05) (aged 89) San Francisco, California, U.S.June 5, 2017(2017-06-05) (aged 89)
🏫 Education	University of California, Berkeley
💼 Occupation
👩 Spouse(s)	Barbara Bass (m. 1989)

Gerson Philip Bakar (March 12, 1928 – June 5, 2017) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. He developed Levi's Plaza and Carmel Plaza, and he and his wife, Barbara Bass Bakar, established one of the San Francisco Bay Area's largest charitable foundations.

Biography

Gerson Bakar was born on March 12, 1928, in Petaluma, California, and attended Petaluma High School before enrolling at the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in business administration. Upon graduating from Berkeley in 1948, Bakar began working in real estate development and eventually founded Gerson Bakar & Associates.

File:Levi Plaza.jpg

Levi's Plaza in San Francisco

By 1986, Bakar had built over 20,000 dwelling units, popularizing amenity-oriented, garden-style apartment communities such as the Woodlake Apartments in San Mateo, completed in 1965, and Park Newport Apartments in Newport Beach, completed in 1970.

Among his more notable commercial projects are Carmel Plaza, a shopping center in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, completed in 1960, and Levi’s Plaza, corporate headquarters of Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco, completed in 1981. He was also involved in the development of the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's move to Third Street.

In 1989, Bakar married Barbara Bass. Bass was CEO of Emporium, Weinstock's, and I. Magnin and held executive and board positions at other retailers.

Gerson Bakar passed away in San Francisco on June 5, 2017, at the age of 89.

Philanthropy

Gerson and Barbara Bakar directed much of their charitable giving though private foundations, primarily the Gerson Bakar Foundation, established in 1984, and the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Foundation, which Barbara founded; the former, funded mostly since 2017 by Barbara Bakar, had assets of over $1 billion as of 2020 and giving of over $140 million in that year, making it one of the largest foundations in the Bay Area. The Bakars’ largess covers many areas of civic and cultural life, principally in the Bay Area, and supports Gerson’s alma mater, Berkeley, and its sister institution, UCSF. Bakar was a benefactor and trustee of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and was involved in the development of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and Menorah Park, a subsidized senior independent-living complex. He was a supporter of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund and chaired its development committee. As one of the founders of the Bay Area Life Sciences Association, Bakar played a role in the land acquisition, planning, and development of the UCSF Mission Bay campus. He also was a co-founder of BRIDGE, supporting that not-for-profit developer of affordable housing. The Bakars have been supporters of other Bay Area nonprofit institutions, such as the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Jewish Family and Children's Services, the Jewish Home and Senior Living Foundation, and KQED, a PBS member television station. The directorship of the Asian Art Museum is named in honor of Barbara Bakar.

Berkeley

Bakar and his wife are benefactors of his alma mater, Berkeley. Bakar supported and advised the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at Berkeley Haas and was a founding member of the chancellor’s executive advisory council. The Bakars served on various other university boards and committees, including the fundraising committees for the “Keeping the Promise Campaign” (1985-1990) and “The Campaign for the New Century” (1993-2000). Bakar and his wife were also inaugural co-chairs of “The Campaign for Berkeley”, the university’s fundraising effort that commenced in 2005 and concluded in 2013. Berkeley’s business school honored him as a commencement speaker in 1978. In 1991, Berkeley Haas celebrated Bakar as its Business Leader of the Year, the school’s highest honor, and the university recognized the couple as “Builders of Berkeley” for their contributions. In 2007, they gave $25 million to Berkeley Haas to endow several faculty positions; at the time, it was the largest single gift in the school’s history. Their foundations have also supported improvements to the student-athlete center, the art museum, and other areas of campus life. In 2013, the Bakars received the university’s Chancellor’s Award. The couple made a major donation toward the development of Berkeley Haas’s Chou Hall, which was completed in 2017. Also in 2017, Barbara Bakar, through Bakar foundations, began funding the $70-million renovation and repurposing of Woo Hall – the former art museum building on the south side of the Berkeley campus – and certain entrepreneurial life science programs and projects, including the Bioenginuity Hub. Among the eponymous designations at Berkeley honoring the Bakars are the Barbara and Gerson Bakar Faculty Building at Berkeley Haas, the Bakar Fellows Program, the Bakar Bioenginuity Hub, Bakar Labs, as well as endowed professorships, scholarships, and prizes. Berkeley Hillel’s auditorium and banquet facilities are also named after the Bakars.

UCSF

The Bakars’ philanthropic involvement with the University of California, San Francisco dates back to the initial planning of UCSF’s Mission Bay campus. The Bakars were involved in the land acquisition and development of, and fundraising for, the medical campus and were awarded the UCSF Medal in 1999 for their many contributions. Since then, the Bakars and their foundations have contributed toward various UCSF initiatives, and UCSF has named the UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital, the UCSF Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, the Bakar Fitness and Recreation Center in the Rutter Center, the Gerson and Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professorship in Cancer Research, and the Barbara Bass Bakar Distinguished Professorship in Cancer Genetics in their honor.

References

This article "Gerson Bakar" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Gerson Bakar. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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