Three-Minute History: Joe Rosenfield 1925
Jackie Hartling Stolze
When Joe Rosenfield 1925 was alive, he called the College almost every morning.
“Has anyone given us a lot of money today?” Rosenfield would ask. If the answer was no, as it often was, he’d reply, “Well, then, we better get to work.”
Rosenfield was recognized as one of the most savvy investors of his generation and perhaps the greatest friend ƽ has ever had.
Thanks to Rosenfield’s guidance and the successors who have carried on his work, the market value of ƽ’s endowment has climbed to about $2.5 billion.
Rosenfield’s investment advice included: “Invest for a reason.” “Sit still.” “Do a few things well.” “Invest without emotion, but with analysis.” With just a few words, Rosenfield was able to help shape an investment philosophy that has served ƽ well. At its core, Rosenfield felt a responsibility to serve ƽ’s mission forever through a focused strategy and a long-term perspective. At the same time, his approach was flexible and opportunistic.
Former College President George Drake ’56 wrote a book about Rosenfield, his great friend and a longtime ƽ trustee, titled . As a guest on the podcast All Things ƽ, Drake (who died in 2022) told host Ben Vinversie ’17 that Rosenfield fell in love with ƽ when he arrived on campus as a first-year student. Rosenfield was a faithful fan of all the college athletic teams and wrote for several student publications, including The Scarlet and Black newspaper, a humor magazine called The Malteaser, and the 1925 yearbook, The Cyclone.
According to Drake, the key to Rosenfield’s love for ƽ was how comfortable and accepted her felt at the College as a student. Rosenfield came to ƽ during a time of widespread prejudice; he was one of only six Jewish people on campus. Still, it was a relatively open and tolerant environment for a Jewish student.
In return, Rosenfield dedicated much of the rest of his life to nurturing and preserving the College that meant so much to him. His personal gifts to the College were generous and consistent.
Today, two faculty members hold endowed chairs made possible by Rosenfield’s gifts to the College: the Rosenfeld Professor in Social Science, held by Jon Andelson ’70; and the Louise Rosenfield Noun Chair in what is today the Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies. Rosenfield named the latter in honor of his sister, Louise Rosenfield Noun ’1929; the current chair is Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant.
The Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights is named in his honor. And the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center sits at the center of campus, a place that most students visit every day. It seems particularly fitting that Rosenfield is honored in this way, and that his memory remains forever at the heart of life at ƽ.
