1998 Institute of Human Relations Award

The American Jewish Committee

1998

Presented to Robert A. Glassman

The American Jewish Committee is proud to present its 1998 Institute of Human Relations Award to Robert Glassman, Co-Chairman of Wainwright Bank, in tribute to his outstanding professional and humanitarian achievements. That Wainwright Bank has become an important voice for social justice can be directly traced to Bob's personal beliefs.

Under Bob's guidance, Wainwright has become an industry leader in financing socially responsible community development, including the financing of over 50% of the local housing projects for people living with AIDS, and the creation of over 500 units of affordable and special needs housing in Boston and Cambridge. Wainwright is a national leader in financing shelters for the homeless, and was one of the first banks in the United States to offer an affinity card supporting both women's issues and gay and lesbian rights.

As an entrepreneur in both the business and nonprofit worlds, Bob has devoted time, money, and energy to creating several organizations and activities designed to better the lives of those in need. One institution is the William Joiner Foundation, based at UMass Boston, that he co-founded in the eighties which not only serves as an advocate for American Vietnam veterans, but promotes scholarship and teaching on war and its social consequences, provides support to Vietnamese citizens on health-related issues, and sponsors cultural exchanges for artists and writers from both countries.

He created the Glassman Fellowship Fund at the Harvard Business School, a scholarship to assist MBA students in financial need, partly in response to his own inner-city public school background. In addition, he has had an extensive philanthropic involvement with many social justice causes in the Boston area, and he is a member of the Board of the Boston Foundation.

Whether as the keynote speaker before 100,000 people at Boston's Gay Pride Day, or speaking with the Hispanic community leaders at El Centro del Cardenal, Bob consistently delivers a message unique within the banking industry: "I believe it's important to use the platform the Bank affords me to inform, educate and introduce different constituencies to issues of social justice. This work, alongside the culture of diversity we've developed at the Bank, is the most important legacy I contemplate I will leave my children."

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