The dean of the graduate school of journalism of CUNY, Stephen B. Shepard, called Leonard Tow “one of the great unsung philanthropists in New York history.” The numbers alone are astounding, and the causes are all vital. Since its inception, the Tow Foundation created by cable industry pioneer Leonard Tow, PhD, and his wife Claire has donated more than $100 million to the arts, media innovation, medical research and juvenile justice.Dr. Tow, the son of Russian immigrants who didn’t want him to go to college so that he could work in the family store, believes that he and his family only rents the fortune that his extraordinary vision created. In private, he calls out fellow tycoons who have not been as generous. “I know some people would leave their entire fortune to their family,” he acknowledges. “I believe that I am a just a temporary custodian for the money, someone who has an obligation to give it back in a responsible fashion.”The schedule of their daughter, Emily Tow Jackson, president of the Foundation, on May 14 provides a window into the breadth and range of their multi-faceted philanthropy. Tow Jackson, recently nominated to the board of trustees of Barnard College of Columbia University, listened to President Obama give the keynote address at the school’s commencement in the morning. She then dashed to the unveiling of the Claire Tow Theater, named for her mother and the centerpiece of the two-story, 23,000-square-foot addition built on the roof of the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. She capped off her night watching her father receive the first ever Distinguished Service to New York Award from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism at its Excellence in Journalism Gala, with Mayor Mike Bloomberg in attendance. While others would be boasting, the down-to-earth Tow Jackson simply said about her day, “The president and mayor in the same day—that is something.”Protecting freedom of speech is a particular passion of Leonard Tow, who was instrumental in the founding of Century Communications and served as CEO of Citizens Communications. One of the many programs that the Foundation funds at Columbia, where he received his master’s and PhD in economics and economic geography, is the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism At the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which is headed by the prolific journalist Jeff Jarvis, the Foundation helped establish the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. Worried about the effect of the decline of print media on democracy, Tow hopes that these centers will lead the way in finding viable economic models in the internet age.“My interest in journalism stems from years in the cable industry,” Tow recalls. “When I started, there were only the three networks. I wanted to bring people more viewing choices. I waged many First Amendment battles, including some that my fellow cable operators wished that I had dropped, against small-minded government officials and community advocates. They tried to block R-rated programs, which was an invasion of the First Amendment. The public is entitled to make their own choices.”By building the Claire Tow Theater, Leonard Tow is returning to his roots. Early in his career, he owned Broadway theaters and was a producer. He notes that this new theater follows the tradition of the other theaters at Lincoln Center, the Mitzi E. Newhouse and the Vivian Beaumont—they are all named after strong women.The Claire Tow Theater, the first live theater space built at Lincoln Center in 40 years and home to its LCT3 program, is unique in New York, which has only seen rising prices of theater tickets. As a showcase for emerging artists, ticket prices at the 131-seat theater will be held at $20. The Lincoln Center location is certain to attract high quality productions, such as the inaugural play, Slowgirl by Greg Pierce, which has already received rave reviews from The New York Times. (Pierce, nephew of actor David Hyde Pierce, was handpicked by Broadway legend John Kander [Chicago and Cabaret] to write the book and lyrics for his latest musical, The Landing, which debuted this past spring.)The Tows are also lead donors for the Leonard and Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, where the couple met 60 years ago.Claire Tow, who is battling ALS, is the impetus for some of the Foundation’s donations to medical research. Funding projects include establishing the Motor Neuron Center for Biology and Disease at Columbia University Medical Center, the Claire Tow Pediatric Pavilion at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a national ALS mouse model repository at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.Tow Jackson, the mother of three, will consider the Foundation successful if “we reduce people’s pain and suffering and offer them opportunities for joy and to be successful in life.” To that end, she concentrates her efforts on social justice in the Foundation’s home state of Connecticut. Juvenile justice reform is a strong focus, with one of her goals being to stop the school-to-prison pipeline. “We have criminalized typical adolescent behavior such as when kids hang out on the corner, wearing low hanging jeans and backwards caps, which adults see as threatening. But this is not criminal behavior,” she explains. “The criminal justice system is creating a culture of fear and, by locking them up, inflicting damage on young people that could last a lifetime. Instead, the juvenile justice system should look for what is missing in these children’s lives and offer therapeutic community-based interventions.  Only then can we stop the over-reliance on incarceration.”Working with the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, she successfully fought for a law in Connecticut that requires the state to keep 16 and 17 years old in the juvenile system, rather than trying them as adults. This one change has positively impacted the lives of approximately 7,500 children over the past two years. The Alliance, along with its advocacy partners, has also been successful at seeing legislation passed that prevents truant children from ending up in jail. The state has taken over another one of the Foundation’s juvenile justice initiatives. The Tow Foundation initially provided dance and drumming lessons for juveniles locked in secure facilities. The improved behavior of the young inmates warranted the state’s tripling of the initial funding for the project.Unable to rest until there is no more injustice in the world, Emily Tow Jackson is now working closely with Governor Cuomo’s staff in New York with the goal of effecting similar reforms to New York’s juvenile justice system.Need To Know: For more on the invaluable work of the Tow Foundation, go to http://towfoundation.org/

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