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OBITUARIES

Ira D. Wallach ’29: Philanthropist, Lawyer, Businessman

Ira D. Wallach ’29, ’31L

Ira D. Wallach ’29, ’31L, a New York City philanthropist who for many years was the chief executive of Central National-Gottesman, the world’s largest private marketer of pulp, paper and newsprint, died on January 6, 2007. He was 97 and lived in Scarsdale.

Wallach and his wife were benefactors of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery in Schermerhorn, donating $3.5 million in 1983 for its inception; it opened in 1986. He also is the namesake of Wallach Hall, formerly Livingston, and provided funds for a named professorship, the Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies. The University gave him an honorary LL.D. in 1983, and he was a friend of the Columbia Libraries. Wallach served on the College’s Board of Visitors from 1984–90 and was an emeritus member until his death.

In a career of more than 70 years, Wallach was a lawyer and businessman with interests in philanthropy and in global economic and political affairs. He was born in New York City on June 3, 1909. Wallach was a Navy lieutenant in WWII and in 1946 joined Gottesman & Co., now Central National-Gottesman, as executive vice president. During his tenure, the Purchase, N.Y.–based company grew from a relatively small wood pulp distributor into an organization with operations in 18 countries. He was chairman and CEO from 1956–1979, and then chairman until 2001. He was senior vice chairman at the time of his death.

With his wife, the former Miriam Gottesman, Wallach created the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Foundation, a charitable foundation whose beneficiaries included the New York Public Library, which honored him and his wife with the naming of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs; the American Museum of Natural History, which houses the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Orientation Center; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also was a longtime friend and benefactor of Central Park as well as of Thirteen/WNET and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wallach was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and many policies of the Nixon administration. He was named in a White House memorandum listing Nixon’s “political opponents,” one step down from the notorious “enemies list” — people who were singled out for tax audits and other problems. In 1980, Wallach co-founded the Institute for East West Security Studies, now known as the EastWest Institute, a research group that focuses on international political, economic and security issues. He also was on the Board of Directors of People For the American Way Foundation.

In addition to his wife, whom he married in 1938, Wallach is survived by his daughters, Sue W. Wachenheim and Kate W. Cassidy; son, Kenneth; 13 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by another son, James.

Lisa Palladino

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