All medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine will no longer need to pay tuition following the donation of $1 billion by Ruth Gottesman, a former professor of the medical college and widow of late billionaire David Gottesman. 

Mrs Gottesman instructed that the donation be used to foot the tuition bills of all medical students in the Bronx, one of the most impoverished boroughs in New York.

The deceased Gottesman was an investor in Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate owned by Warren Buffet, who Forbes ranked the 2024 world’s sixth richest man.

Mrs Gottesman, 93, said her husband left her the lump sum — “a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock,” when he died in 2022 and asked her to “do whatever you think is right with it,” The New York Times cited her as saying.

But having had a long career at Einstein College, where she discovered paying tuition costs was the biggest challenge for many students, with the majority still owing debts even after graduation, she donated the money to a worthy cause.

“I wanted to fund students at Einstein so that they would receive free tuition,” she said. 

The Gottesmans had a cordial relationship with Philip Ozuah, a U.S.-based Nigerian doctor who heads the Albert Einstein College and Montefiore Medical Centre.

Mrs Gottesman said she was glad to have made the right choice in donating the lumpsum to those in need.

“That’s what makes me very happy about this gift,” she added. “I have the opportunity not just to help Phil but to help Montefiore and Einstein in a transformative way — and I’m just so proud and so humbled — both — that I could do it.”

Mr Ozuah praised Mrs Gottesman and asserted that although she desired to remain anonymous, he made her reveal her identity to motivate others her age to toe the same path. 

“Here’s somebody who is totally dedicated to the welfare of others and wants no accolades, no recognition,” The Times quoted Mr Ozuah as saying.