Lynn Schusterman Biography & Net Worth

Lynn Schusterman is a well-known philanthropist from the United States.  Together with her late husband Charles Schusterman, she co-founded the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation where she currently holds the position of chairwoman. The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization, works on helping Jewish causes around the globe. They also seek to donate 25 percent to the needs of the people in several parts of the United States. Of German and Jewish ancestry, this billionaire, who the Bloomberg billionaire index values at 4 billion dollars, was born on January 21, 1939, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. She attended the University of Miami and later married Charles who was of Russian-Jewish origin. Charles owned Samson Investment Company, which was known as one of the largest gas exploration and production companies in the United States. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1983, he passed away in 2000, and his Samson Investment Company was sold to a group of investors led by KKR for $7.2 billion in 2011. Asides from the charity organizations she founded with her husband, Lynn has also co-founded a handful of philanthropic organizations which include the Schusterman-Israel Foundation, the ROI Community, and Jerusalem Season of Culture. Her daughter Stacy is actively involved in many Jewish charities as well. More details follow below.

Early Life

She was born Lynn Rothschild on January 21, 1939, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, and was raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Theirs was a Jewish family. She has two younger sisters. Her father, Wes Rothschild, was a brother of Louis Rothschild who notably served in the Eisenhower Cabinet. Her mother, Amelia Mayer, was one of the children of Moses Emmanuel Mayer and Helen Loewen Mayer. After her parents divorced at an early age, Lynn and her sisters were raised by their mother and stepfather, Harold Josey, who owned an investment company known as the H.I. Josey & Company.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami in Florida.

Professional Life

Lynn and her husband started the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in 1987. It is a non-profit organization that donates 25 percent to Oklahoma needs and 75 percent to Jewish causes around the world. In 2011, she joined Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and countless others by signing the Giving Pledge, committing to give away most of her fortune to the less privileged around the world. A remarkable philanthropist, she is focused on giving to the global Jewish community and her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She strives to improve lives, strengthen communities and advance equity through her philanthropic works. Furthermore, she is known for her work in supporting young Jewish innovators, strengthening Jewish identity, and promoting inclusivity, especially in the Jewish LGBT community. She actively supports national Jewish organizations like Keshet, Repair the World, BBYO, Hillel, Moishe House, and Birthright Israel. Since 1998, she has authorized over $6 million to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. She also supports and finances programs in education, child advocacy, and youth leadership within Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a supporter of Teach For All and Teach For America, and was contributory in the establishment of Teach For America to create a corps in the US and Israel.

Mrs. Schusterman has also been actively involved in the prevention and handling of child abuse and neglect, both in Oklahoma and in Jerusalem, where she helped to institute the Haruv Institute. Among her largest single donations were grants to the University of Oklahoma to establish the Schusterman Center campus in Tulsa and to Brandeis University to establish the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. She also donated $6 million to the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies located at The University of Texas at Austin.

Achievements

Mrs. Lynn Schusterman’s work has been profiled in the worldwide Jewish and secular press, including Huffington Post, Haaretz, New York Times, Jerusalem Post, Wall Street Journal, and others.

In 2000, along with her late husband, she was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame. Three years later, she joined the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2006, she was voted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame

In 2007, an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters came calling as the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion decided to honor her for all her contributions to Jewish causes.

She received the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Public Service award in 2008, and she has been named by Forward newspaper as one of the “Forward 50” on five occasions.

Personal Life

In 1962, Lynn married Charles Schusterman, who was also Jewish. Charles graduated from the University of Oklahoma and later teamed with his brother to set up their own oil and gas company. They later split their business equally and Charles developed his share into the Samson Investment Company which went on to become one of the nation’s largest gas exploration and production companies. Charles was diagnosed with leukemia in 1983 and died a billionaire in 2000.

The couple had three children together, and those children now have six granddaughters.

Lynn Schusterman Net Worth

A mother and grandmother, Mrs. Schusterman’s name is always on the lips of many for having been a pioneer for women in philanthropy. Her charitable work stresses the importance of family and helping those that need the most help in society. She has a net worth of $4 billion dollars.

She is the widow of Mr. Charles Schusterman, an American businessman who founded and managed Samson Resources, known to be one of the largest privately-held oil and gas companies in the United States. After her husband died in 2000, Mrs. Lynn Schusterman sold most of the company in 2011 and decided to pay her full attention to her philanthropic work mainly through the foundation she started with her husband, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation, in addition to a long list of other charity organizations, mainly dedicated to supporting Jewish organizations and communities in the United States and Israel.