Alan Feinstein

Alan Shawn Feinstein is a prominent Rhode Island philanthropist and humanitarian dedicated to combating hunger and promoting education.

Feinstein was born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1931. He graduated from Boston University and Boston Teachers College, and then taught elementary and junior high school in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

He met his wife, Dr. Pratarnporn Chiemwichit, a native of Bangkok, in Boston in 1961. They were married in 1963 and moved to Rhode Island, where his wife completed her training in Child Psychiatry. They went to Thailand in 1965 for an extended visit where Feinstein had a private audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The couple returned in 1966, settled in Cranston, Rhode Island, and continued living in the same seven-room colonial house even after they became wealthy, where they still live today.

In 1974, Feinstein used $500 in savings to start a financial advisory newsletter that eventually had approximately half a million subscribers. Feinstein also started a newspaper column which was widely syndicated, and authored several books of financial advice, a novel and several children's books. In 1984, Prentice Hall published a book written by Milton Pierce based on Feinstein's financial advice, "The Four Treasures of Alan Shawn Feinstein".

A great deal of Feinstein's wealth comes from having sold "collectibles", which he promoted through his newsletter with a unique one year money back guarantee. He maintained an unblemished record with the Better Business Bureau.

With his fortune, Feinstein founded a charitable foundation, the Feinstein Foundation in 1991, and since 1996 he has dedicated himself to philanthropy full time, each year visiting many schools in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts promoting the values of community service.

By 2008 over 125,000 children have been in his school program and are recognized as Feinstein Junior Scholars for promising to do good deeds for others. For the past two years he has been featured on PBS, relating their good deeds.

Several schools and colleges in Rhode Island have been named for him and because of his charitable efforts in Nicaragua, a school there was named for his grandson.

In 1996, he gave $1 million each to Johnson and Wales University, the New England Institute of Technology, Salve Regina University, the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Roger Williams University, to found the Feinstein Enriching American Program which requires all of their students to complete a community service project to graduate. He was heavily involved in founding the first public high school with community service as its central focus, the Feinstein High School in Providence, named in his honor. At the postsecondary level, he was instrumental in creating the Feinstein Institute at Providence College, which is the first undergraduate degree program in community service. He also gave a $500,000 grant to establish a joint doctoral program in community service between the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College. In addition, he funded the Louis Feinstein Institute for Legal Service at Roger Williams University. cite web |url= http://law.rwu.edu/sites/fils/ |title= Feinstein Institute |format= html |work= Roger Williams University School of Law website |quote= ] He has also given over $15 million to R.I. colleges and universities for scholarships to students in his community service program and recently founded the Institute for Philanthropic Leadership at Rhode Island college.

With his major donations, he usually is offered naming rights and numerous buildings in the state carry his name or another name of his choosing.

Feinstein's major area of focus for community service has been fighting hunger. Every year since 1996, he has put up $1 million for his annual "Feinstein Challenge", a massive fundraising campaign for agencies across the country fighting hunger. The Feinstein Challenges have raised over $800 million for them to date.

He has also given money to over 200 houses of worship around the country to use as start-up funds for food pantries.

In the early 1990s, Feinstein collaborated with Brown University to found the Feinstein World Hunger Program, a university research and teaching center dedicated to studying the causes of and possible solutions to hunger, which later moved to Tufts University. In 2000, he entered into an agreement with a Tufts professor, J. Larry Brown, to give $3 million to start another similar center. A dispute between them developed and Feinstein sued Brown. Brown eventually issued a public apology to Feinstein.

In 1993, Feinstein purchased the famous contract whereby the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, thus initiating the famous "Curse of the Bambino". In 2004, when the Red Sox won their first world series in over 80 years, Feinstein auctioned off this contract, giving the proceeds (almost $1 million) to anti hunger agencies nationwide.

Feinstein is the honorary chairman of the World Scholar Athlete Games. He gave $1 million to construct their Hall of Fame building.

He has received many awards for his philanthropy, including the Distinguished Services Award from the American History Society; the Longfellow Humanitarian Award from the American Red Cross; and was named Rhode Island Citizen of the Year by the March of Dimes. He was awarded the President's Medal at both Rhode Island College and Brown. He has been named to the Rhode Island Hall of Fame. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Providence College, Salve Regina University, Johnson and Wales University, Roger Williams University, Rhode Island College, the University of Rhode Island and the New England Institute of Technology.

He and his wife have three children, Ari, a salesman and entrepreneur in Washington DC; Leila, a television news anchor; and Richard, a writer, who recently passed away.

Books by Alan Feinstein

* "Triumph!" (1960)
* "Folk Tales from Siam" (1969)
* "Folk Tales from Persia" (1971)
* "Folk Tales from Portugal" (1972)
* "How to Make Money Fast" (1975)

References

External links

* [http://www.feinsteinfoundation.org/ Feinstein Foundation]