Richard Gilder

Early life and education

Born on May 31, 1932, Gilder attended Northfield Mount Hermon School before enrolling in Yale College, graduating in 1954 with a BA in history. He received a Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007 from Yale. He provided $4 million, over half the necessary funding, in honor of his daughter, Virginia Anne, a two-time Olympian, for the recently completed Gilder Boathouse for Yale rowers.The boathouse carries only the Gilder last name to honor three generations of Yale alumni.

Career

After working at the brokerage firm of A.G. Becker & Co., Gilder founded the firm now known as Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. in 1968. He is chairman of the executive committee at the New-York Historical Society and serves on the executive board of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. With Lewis Lehrman he is a co-founder (1994) and trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute. He is also a trustee of the Morgan Library and Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Central Park Conservancy, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He is chairman emeritus of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank, and the Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee, to which his ex-wife Virginia James continues to be a major donor. In 2005 Gilder and Lewis Lehrman received the National Humanities Medal for their work promoting the study of American history. He has now set up a PhD. program at the American Museum of Natural History in his own name, the Richard Gilder Graduate School at AMNH.

Personal life

Gilder has four children. His daughter Virginia Gilder (born 1958), also a Yale graduate, was a member of the American women's quadruple sculls team that won the silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. and is a co-owner of the Seattle Storm, a professional women's basketball team in the WNBA.

In 2005 he married former model and actress Lois Chiles. Her paternal uncle was oil tycoon Eddie Chiles.