Renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist, MSU alumnus and Detroit native, Eli Broad created an indelible legacy at his alma matter, envisioning and funding projects that have helped to create a better society and will benefit Spartans for generations.
Broad passed away Friday, April 30, 2021, at the age of 87.
Famously, he once told a class in the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, “I love to build things.” He built many remarkable things including: a contemporary art museum in the Midwest, a public college of Business with a passion for innovation, a platform for partnering with public schools and a philanthropic legacy that has inspired many—and that’s just at MSU.
Our entire community is proud to pay tribute to this Spartan who inspired so many of us. We will dearly miss his relentless pursuit of excellence and forward-thinking wisdom.
“I was privileged to get to know alumnus, entrepreneur and philanthropist Eli Broad before his passing April 30, and all our hearts have been with Edythe and the Broad family. He personified excellence from the classroom to the board room and, in his engagement, he embodied what it means to be a Spartan.”
Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D.
Eli and Edythe often proudly pointed to their Detroit Public School educational roots. They married in 1954, the year Eli graduated cum laude from MSU. He went on to build two Fortune 500 companies: KB Home and SunAmerica.
Named one of the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine in 2016, Eli’s successful business career enabled a devotion to philanthropy across the areas of education reform, scientific and medical research, and the arts. Co-founders of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, their $20 million gift in 1991 to the Eli Broad College of Business and the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management—both renamed in his honor—was the largest gift ever received by a public business school at that time and underscores the growing success of the college today.
