T.H. Chan

T.H. Chan
Born
Chan Tseng-hsi

1923
Guangdong, China
Died8 March 1986(1986-03-08) (aged 62–63)
OccupationProperty developer
Known forCo-founder of the Hang Lung Group
ChildrenRonnie Chan
Gerald Chan

Chan Tseng-hsi (Chinese: 陳曾熙; pinyin: Chén Zēngxī; 1923 – 8 March 1986) was a Hong Kong entrepreneur who founded the Hong Kong–based real estate company Hang Lung Group.[1]

Born and raised in Guangdong, China, Chan moved to British Hong Kong in the 1940s because of the Chinese Civil War. He took an entry-level job in a bank[which?] and eventually built a successful real estate business. According to his son Gerald, he used to loan money to his friends to pay for their children's school fees. His mother, Tan Chingfen, was a nurse who, in the 1950s, gave cholera vaccinations to the neighbourhood children in the family kitchen.[2]

After Gerald got a fellowship for his doctoral studies at Harvard, Chan was proud of his son, but disturbed that Gerald was taking the place of someone who couldn't pay. He told a friend, "We have the means to pay tuition. Why is Gerald taking the scholarship away from someone else?"[2]

In 2014, his sons Ronnie and Gerald donated $350 million to Harvard University, which named the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health after him.[2][3] Harvard officials said the money would be used in four areas: pandemics, including obesity, cancer, and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa; harmful environments, including pollution and violence; poverty and humanitarian crises; and failing health systems.[3]

In 2021, the Chan family made an unrestricted gift of $175 million to the UMass Medical School, which changed its name to UMass Chan Medical School in recognition of this donation.[4]

In March 2022, the Morningside Academy for Design was founded with a $100 million gift from the Morningside Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the T.H. Chan family.[5]

  1. ^ https://connections.hanglung.com/en/node/3709 Archived 16 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine[non-primary source needed]
  2. ^ a b c Madeleine Drexler (19 July 2016). "The story of T.H. Chan". Harvard Public Health Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  3. ^ a b Richard Pérez-Peña (8 September 2014). "Hong Kong Group to Give Harvard's School of Public Health $350 Million". New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  4. ^ UMass Chan Medical School Communications (17 September 2021). "University of Massachusetts announces $175 million transformational gift to its Medical School". Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  5. ^ "MIT MAD | Morningside Academy for Design". design.mit.edu. Retrieved 30 January 2024.