Norman Leventhal, a Boston real estate developer, map collector, and philanthropist, died on April 5, 2015. An alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was a life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation and was awarded honorary degrees from Brandeis and Boston Universities. He served as a naval architect during World War II, working from the Charlestown Navy Yard. Norman founded Beacon Companies, his real estate business, with his brother Robert in 1945. His map collecting began when he bought an antique map dating to 1800 in a London bookstore. He went on to amass one of the leading private collections documenting the growth of New England from the seventeenth century on. In 2003, Norman, in partnership with Boston Public Library, established the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the library. The Map Center is dedicated to education through the use of maps and provides public access to his collection and the library’s extensive collection of 250,000 maps and atlases. Norman’s collecting also led to his book Mapping Boston (1999), about the social and topographical development of Boston from its founding to the present day. Norman’s philanthropic efforts were extensive. He served on the boards of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston. He was a founder of Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly and led development of the LeventhalSidman Jewish Community Center in Newton, which bears his family’s names. He also served as president, chairman, trustee, or board member for such organizations as the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
Boston, MA
United States