Bernard Osher (born 1927) is an American billionaire, best known for his work as a philanthropist.
A native of Biddeford, Maine, Osher studied at Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1948. He spent his early years as a businessman in southern Maine, owning and running a large hardware store on Main Street in Biddeford as well as a big summer amusement park called Palace Playland in nearby Old Orchard Beach. After having worked at Oppenheimer & Company in New York, he moved to California where he became a founding director of World Savings, which became the second largest savings institution in the United States. World Savings ultimately merged with the Wachovia Corporation. An avid art collector, Osher also purchased the auction house, Butterfield & Butterfield, which became the fourth-largest auction house in the world. In 1999, he sold the company to eBay.
As a philanthropist, Osher founded the Bernard Osher Foundation in 1977. The foundation is a major supporter of higher education and the arts, Osher has consequently become known as "the quiet philanthropist." A recent initiative of the Foundation has funded over 120 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at universities and colleges in the United States since 2001.
In 2005, Forbes listed him as the 584th richest man in the world, and in 2006, they listed him as the 746th. Also, in the November 26, 2007 issue of Businessweek, he was listed as the 11th most generous philanthropist. The article cited the $805 million that he has given to arts, educational, and social services in his life. He is married to Barbro Sachs-Osher.
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