NYU Philanthropist Martin Kimmel Dies at 92

Martin Kimmel, trustee of the NYU Medical Center and member of the University’s Sir Harold Acton Society and Bronfman Center Advisory Board, died on April 17 at the age of 92.

      Mr. Kimmel was a prominent real estate developer and a co-founding partner of Kimco Realty Corporation, the nation’s largest publicly traded real estate investment trust with approximately 1,900 properties in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico.

      Mr. Kimmel served as trustee and director of several major civic and philanthropic endeavors and, with his wife, NYU Life Trustee Helen Kimmel, he leaves a legacy of philanthropy from the Helen & Martin Kimmel Foundation to numerous intellectual and cultural institutions, including NYU and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.  

      At the NYU Medical Center, the couple made possible the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology, named professorships, and a wide range of programs, including epilepsy research, the Rusk Institute, molecular immunology, pharmacology, urology, cancer, and vascular research. Their giving embraced the entire University, including its Trustee Partners’ Faculty Initiative Fund and a signature gift established at the heart of NYU’s Greenwich Village campus—the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life on Washington Square Park. 

      He is survived by his wife; his son, Adam; stepdaughters Betsy Karel and Abby Leigh; and four grandchildren.