Philanthropist

LOS ANGELES - Dolores Hope, 102, who throughout her 69-year marriage to comedian Bob Hope oversaw their charitable giving and played a key role in establishing the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., has died. Mrs. Hope died Monday of natural causes at her home in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, publicist Harlan Boll said. In the late 1960s, the Hopes donated 80 acres near their future Palm Springs estate for the medical center, which opened in 1971.

RUTH CAPLAN Perelman was content to sit back and let her hard-driving husband, Raymond G., tear up the business world - sort of. There were times when Ruth was "quick to correct him when she disagrees," a writer said in an Inquirer profile of the Perelmans in 2007. "Ruth is quieter but keenly aware and committed, sort of a wise counselor," Gail M. Harrity, president of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said at the time. "Together they make a fabulous duo. " Ruth Perelman died yesterday of pneumonia at age 90. She and her husband lived in Rittenhouse Square.

John Eleuthere du Pont's name in block letters has been on the futuristic Villanova University sports pavilion on the Main Line for almost a decade. Last night it was on a warrant charging him with killing an Olympic athlete. The philanthropist whose desire for athletic excellence drove him to build the $15 million pavilion at Villanova in 1986, as well as establish state-of-the-art training facilities on his own property, is known around horse country in Newtown Township as an eccentric character.

Adolph G. Rosengarten Jr., 84, a former Army spy, Philadelphia corporate director and Main Line philanthropist, died yesterday at his estate in Wayne. Mr. Rosengarten, whose family's century-old pharmaceutical business merged in 1927 with Merck & Co., graduated from Princeton University in 1927 and the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1930. He joined the law firm Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young and became a partner in 1935. With the outbreak of World War II, he joined the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry in 1941.

Jerome J. Drucker, 95, a musician's son who worked his way through the Wharton School at night, founded a shirt manufacturing business, then devoted his time and money to numerous Philadelphia charities and hospitals, died Friday at Graduate Hospital. He lived in Center City. At the time of his death, Mr. Drucker was serving on the boards of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Center and the Albert Einstein Medical Center. He was prominent in the growth of the Moss Rehabilitation Hospital and very active in the United Way, the Federation of Allied Jewish Appeal and the Federation of Jewish Agencies.

Each day, as the sun passes over Chester Rural Cemetery, a life-size bronze statue of a mourning woman casts its shadow on the grave of Alfred O. Deshong, Chester's most noteworthy philanthropist. It is a sculpture done by Philadelphia artist Samuel Aloysius Murray and commissioned by Deshong before his death in 1913. A smaller version of Sorrow, as the work is named, sits on a mantle in the Widener University Art Museum in Chester. Could Deshong, a wealthy merchant and art collector, have been as prescient as he was eccentric in his later years?

Josephine C. O'Neill Connelly, philanthropist and mother, whose grace, humor and values were the bedrock succeeding generations built careers and lives upon, died yesterday. She was 88 and lived in Bala Cynwyd. Connelly, chairwoman of the Connelly Foundation, was the wife of 52 years of the late John F. Connelly, former chairman and CEO of Crown, Cork & Seal Co. and Connelly Containers Inc. "My mother had a wonderful combination of yesterday's values and traditions with today's personal touch.

Elizabeth M. Petrie, the former Mrs. Albert M. Greenfield, 90, a powerful figure in Philadelphia education, art, politics and philanthropy for more than 30 years, died June 6 at her home of three years in Williamstown, Mass. Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford said: "Elizabeth was a great public citizen, a constant constructive active-duty citizen in Philadelphia and New York, as well as in the early years of the Peace Corps. " Mrs. Petrie, who was born in Camden and raised in Collingswood, was too poor to afford college after graduating from high school, so she took a clerical job with RCA in Camden.

TODAY IS National Philanthropy Day, launched 22 years ago to spotlight the life-changing work done by philanthropists and their nonprofit partners. Governments at every level look to philanthropy to supplement public resources for initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life. The hundreds of large and small nonprofits that deliver essential services around our region depend on private donations. We are fortunate that philanthropists in southeastern Pennsylvania step up in a big way. According to Delaware Valley Grantmakers' recent report, "Commonwealth Giving: A Report on Pennsylvania Philanthropy," more than 1,400 foundations in our region gave $1 billion in 2005, up 89 percent from 10 years before.

Janet F. Haas, a specialist in rehabilitative medicine and brain trauma who is the daughter-in-law of philanthropist F. Otto Haas, has been named president of the William Penn Foundation, the region's second-largest philanthropy. Her cousin, David Haas, son of John C. Haas, will become chair of the foundation. In a prepared statement, David Haas said the appointment of his cousin to William Penn's top administrative post represented "a natural evolution. " "The William Penn Foundation is well positioned to build for the future," he said.