By Blaine Friedlander, Cornell Chronicle
June 16, 2025
Harold Tanner ’52, chairman emeritus of the Cornell Board of Trustees – who helped usher in an era of financial stability as a co-chair of Cornell’s first billion-dollar endowment campaign and served as board chair during the transformative shift of all first-year students to North Campus residences – died June 14 in New York. He was 93.
Tanner was a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees from 1982 to 1997, and was then unanimously elected to serve as its chair from 1997 to 2002. A graduate of the ILR School and founder of Tanner & Co., a New York City investment banking firm, Tanner was also a presidential councillor, life member of the Cornell University Council, life fellow of Weill Cornell Medical College, emeritus member of the Arts and Sciences Advisory Council and vice-chair of the presidential search committee that selected Hunter R. Rawlings III as Cornell’s 10th president.
“Harold Tanner led by example and nurtured generations of future Cornell benefactors, who have gone on to strengthen the university in countless ways,” President Michael I. Kotlikoff said. “He led the board with grace and humor, recruited future leaders to the Board of Trustees, and was greatly admired by trustees and university leaders alike. His impact on Cornell is immeasurable.”
“Harold’s imprint is felt all over Cornell as he inspired countless others through his board leadership and as a leading philanthropist,” said Kraig Kayser, MBA ’84, chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees. “Always the gentleman, he was a great friend and mentor to those who followed in his footsteps.”
“Harold was a very special man – 100% dedicated to Cornell, and steadfast in his belief that the university would always ‘Do the Greatest Good.’ He will be sorely missed,” said Anne Smalling ’87, incoming Board of Trustees chair.
Harold Tanner was born on May 2, 1932, in New York City. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from Cornell, serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and earning a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University in 1956, Tanner started his investment banking career at Blyth & Co., Inc., where he rose to vice president and director in 1967, and then director of research in 1969. That same year, Tanner joined Rothschild, Inc., as executive vice president, and later joined Blyth Eastman Dillon & Co. in 1977 as its executive vice president, and was named chief operating officer in 1979.
He joined Salomon Brothers in 1980, as managing director and the head of corporate finance, before founding his own firm in 1987.
Tanner became involved in Cornell alumni affairs after meeting Nelson Schaenen Jr. ’50 at a business luncheon in 1969, where he spoke to Schaenen about his undergraduate years. “I told him I had a great experience at Cornell and would be willing to work to keep it moving forward,” Tanner said later.
In his first volunteer assignment, Tanner worked with Schaenen and Stephen Weiss ’57 to analyze Cornell’s endowment portfolio. Two years later, in 1971, Tanner became a University Council member and in 1976, Richard Ramin ’51 asked him to chair the major gifts committee for the Class of 1952’s 25th reunion.
“I looked at Dick’s letter for several weeks,” Tanner said. “I didn’t want to do it because I’d never done any fundraising before, and yet I didn’t want to say no because that would mean someone else would have to do it. So, I said yes and became involved and committed.”
In 1982, he joined the Board of Trustees and served as a member of several committees. As a member of the Executive Committee, Tanner led the effort to fund and secure a new location for the Cornell Club in New York City after the 100-year-old club, formerly at 50th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan, closed in 1983.
Tanner and the broader volunteer group found a building – the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Corporation – which was gifted to the university in 1986. After a three-year renovation, the permanent Cornell Club New York City, at 6 East 44th St. in Manhattan, opened its doors on Dec. 1, 1989.
Starting in 1990, Tanner co-chaired what would become Cornell’s successful $1.5 billion “Creating the Future” Campaign. The campaign – which ended up raising $1.507 billion – pushed Cornell into a top-10 spot among university endowments. At the time, the campaign was the largest-ever completed in higher education.
As part of that campaign, he and his wife, Nicki Tanner, endowed the Harold Tanner Deanship of Arts and Sciences. The Tanners previously had established the Pauline and Irving Tanner Scholarship Fund in the College of Arts and Sciences, in honor of his parents.
Following Rawlings’ selection as university president in 1995, and Tanner’s own rise to the helm of the Board of Trustees shortly thereafter, the two partnered in implementing initiatives to strengthen Cornell’s teaching, research and outreach, as well as student life.
Notable among their accomplishments was the Residential Initiative, launched in 1997, which situated all first-year students on a renovated and rebuilt North Campus while also creating living-learning communities on West Campus for students in their sophomore year and beyond. The naming of the Tanner Lounge in Appel Commons recognizes Harold and Nicki Tanner’s philanthropic commitment to the project, which transformed the Cornell student experience.
In addition to his Cornell and business accomplishments, Tanner was a leader in the Jewish community, serving as president and board chairman of the American Jewish Committee and chair of the Conference of Jewish Presidents. In February 2004, he led a delegation of the American Jewish Committee to the Vatican for a private meeting with Pope John Paul II. “We are profoundly appreciative of your manifold statements on the unique relationship between our faiths and your description of the Jewish people as the church’s dearly beloved elder of the unbroken and eternal covenant,” he told the pontiff.
He served on the Board of the Associates of Harvard Business School and was a founder of the Volunteer Consulting Group Inc. He was honored with the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award in 1992 and earned the Herbert Lehman Award of the American Jewish Committee in 1995.
The Tanner Prize, established and named for him by Cornell Grinspoon Hillel’s board in 2004, is awarded annually to a person, couple or family making significant contributions to Cornell and to Jewish life.
“As Cornell Hillel is the intersection of all things Jewish and all things Cornell, it is fitting for a prize acknowledging service to both to come from the organization,” Seth M. Siegel ’74, J.D. ’78, said in 2005, when the prize was established. “That so generous, so tireless and so visionary a leader as Harold Tanner has allowed us to name the prize for him sets a high standard for all recipients of the Tanner Prize.”
Harold is survived by his wife of 68 years, Estelle (Nicki) Newman Tanner; their three children – Karen Tanner Allen ’83, David A. Tanner and James M. Tanner; and eight grandsons and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral will be held June 18 at Central Synagogue, 652 Lexington Ave., Manhattan. Memorial gifts can be designated to the Tanner Scholarship endowment fund in the College of Arts and Sciences, and to the new Clinical Care Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.