Richard Blum’s Legacy: Philanthropy, University Reform, and Global Development

Financier and philanthropist Richard C. Blum, longtime UC regent and UC Berkeley alumnus, died on February 27, 2022, at age 86 after a long battle with cancer.
Through Blum Capital and decades on the UC Board of Regents, he helped shape UC governance, backed the creation of UC Merced, and funded academic programs focused on poverty and development.
He founded the Blum Center for Developing Economies, which expanded across UC campuses to link education, development engineering, and global poverty action.
Internationally, he created and supported organizations such as the American Himalayan Foundation to fight trafficking, improve health and education, and preserve culture in the Himalayas and beyond.

Richard C. Blum’s life presents a model of how private capital, institutional governance, and philanthropic vision can intertwine to generate enduring impact—both regionally and globally. Through Blum Capital, his investment firm, Blum amassed the financial base to support substantial public goods, rather than merely accruing wealth; he didn’t divest his influence but redirected earnings toward collective purpose.

Within the University of California system, Blum’s dual role as alumnus-regent-donor allowed him a rare convergence of perspectives. He not only governed the system from 2002 through 2022—being appointed by two California governors—but also shaped its physical and intellectual infrastructure, helping inaugurate UC Merced and pushing for fiscal restraint at the system-wide level. His founding of the Blum Centers represents a strategic investment in education, enabling new fields like development engineering and embedding global poverty awareness into higher education curricula.

Internationally, his activism through the American Himalayan Foundation and related organizations underscores the power of place-based engagement. Blum leveraged personal exploration—mountaineering, travel—to identify under-the-radar crises (such as girl trafficking, healthcare shortages, cultural erosion), and then channeled resources toward scalable programs. His approach elevated listening and interdisciplinary collaboration over pure charitable giving, helping build institutions capable of long-term change.

Strategic implications emerge for donors, universities, and policymakers. First, the importance of integrating philanthropy with institutional governance to amplify leverage. Second, the value of endowing programs that bridge academia and real-world problem-solving—engineer yet empathetic solutions. Third, the risk of conflicts of interest or overlap between personal, business, and philanthropic endeavors—as critics have occasionally suggested in Blum’s case—but which were largely managed and did not notably derail his philanthropic mission.

Open questions include: What mechanisms ensured accountability and equity in how donor-funded centers distribute resources across UC’s campuses? To what extent did Blum Capital’s business activities pose conflicts with the public roles that Blum held, and how were those addressed? And how sustainable are the programs he founded, especially in a university landscape of shifting priorities and funding constraints?

Supporting Notes

Richard Blum died on February 27, 2022, at his home in San Francisco, at the age of 86, after a long battle with cancer. [2][7][12]
He earned a BS in business in 1958 and an MBA in 1959 from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. [2][12]
Blum founded Blum Capital Partners in 1975; prior to that, he was a partner at brokerage Sutro & Co. before age 30. [1][12]
He was appointed to the University of California Board of Regents in 2002 by Governor Gray Davis, reappointed in 2014 by Governor Jerry Brown; he served until his death and held the title of chairman emeritus of the board. [1][7]
Blum founded the Blum Center for Developing Economies at UC Berkeley in 2006–2007, which now spans all UC campuses. The Global Poverty and Practice minor from the Center has graduated nearly 1,000 students, with practicums in over 70 countries. [1][10]
Blum established the American Himalayan Foundation in 1980; their work includes building hospitals and schools, addressing human trafficking, and promoting Himalayan culture; he was an honorary consul of Nepal. [1][2][9]
He received the Berkeley Medal in 2009—UC Berkeley’s top honor—in the presence of the Dalai Lama. [1][10]
Among his advocacy roles, he co-chaired the World Conference of Religion and Peace, was a trustee of the Carter Center, and served on boards including Brookings, WWF, and the Wilderness Society. [2][9][7]