Eugene Lang

For the football player, see Gene Lang (American football).

Eugene M. "Gene" Lang (b. 1919, New York City) is an American philanthropist who founded REFAC Technology Development Corporation in 1951. He created the I Have A Dream Foundation in 1981, and Project Pericles in 2001. He has also made large donations to Swarthmore College, The New School's undergraduate liberal arts college - Eugene Lang College - and the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School, which is part of Columbia University.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His philanthropies, focused primarily on education, altogether exceed $150,000,000. Due to his philanthropy in education, he now holds 29 honorary degrees.

Personal life

Lang was born to immigrant parents in 1919 and grew up in New York City. He attended public schools and studied at Townsend Harris High School. At the age of 15 he was admitted as a scholarship student to Swarthmore College, and received a B.A. in economics in 1938. He then received an M.S. from Columbia Business School in 1940. He was married to Theresa (Volmar) Lang from 1946 until her death in 2008; they had three children, Jane Lang, David Lang and actor Stephen Lang.