Bernard Gerald Cantor was the founder and chairman of securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald and an important philanthropist supporting visual arts institutions in the United States. During his life Cantor assembled the world's largest private collection of works by Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin

François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...

, much of which was donated to over 70 art institutions worldwide, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....

 and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts

The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, formerly the Stanford University Museum of Art, and commonly known as the Cantor Arts Center, is an art museum on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. The museum, which opened in 1894, consists of over...

 at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

. Along with his wife, Iris, Cantor underwrote many art exhibitions and endowed galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

, including the popular Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden

Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden is a rooftop terrace, art venue and restaurant open in the warm weather months at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Roof Garden offers "breathtaking" views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The garden is the gift of philanthropists...

, as well as a sculpture garden and his namesake museum at Stanford. In 1995, he and his wife were awarded the National Medal of Arts

National Medal of Arts

The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...

Cantor's parents were Rose and Julius Cantor, Jewish immigrants from Belarus. Born in the Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

 on January 17, 1916, Cantor attended DeWitt Clinton High School

DeWitt Clinton High School

DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the Bronx, New York City, New York.-History:Clinton opened in 1897 at 60 West 13th Street at the northern end of Greenwich Village under the name of Boys High School, although this Boys High School was not related to the one in Brooklyn...

. He and his first wife, Leona (deceased) had one son, Jay, who chose not to follow his father into the financial world.

External links

• B. Gerald Cantor Biography from the The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
• B. Gerald Cantor History from B. Gerald Cantor's website.