Boehm Foundation (New York, N.Y.)

The Boehm Foundation was born in 1962 when Louis Boehm, a successful lawyer and real estate investor from New York City, died and set aside one million dollars of his estate to aid future "deserving scholars." Boehm's son, Robert, and several family friends used the bequest to start the Louis Boehm Foundation in 1963, the same year that Robert and his wife Frances organized the Lillian Boehm Foundation. Named after and funded in part by Robert's mother, the Lillian Boehm Foundation was established, according to an early mission statement, in order "to assist in efforts to bring about important and meaningful social change ... in the interest of a more democratic society." The Louis and Lillian Boehm Foundations merged in 1978 to become simply the "Boehm Foundation," and the goals of aiding young scholars and activists as well as promoting social change and democracy continued to guide the Foundation's business through 2004 when it distributed its last grants.

The progressive nature of the Boehm Foundation was somewhat ironic considering that Louis Boehm was relatively conservative in comparison to his son. At one point in the 1930s, for example, he even helped Robert travel to the Soviet Union in the hopes of "disillusioning" him about the potential of radical politics. Yet despite Louis' best efforts, Robert became ever more committed to the political left. After graduating first from Dartmouth and then Columbia University Law School, Robert went to work in his father's law firm. While there he met his future wife, Frances, who was as a secretary in the firm. Their first date was at a 1938 rally held in Madison Square Garden where the featured speaker was Earl Browder, the head of the American Communist Party. Known by acquaintances as Bob and Fran throughout their lives, they married in 1939.

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