The foundation said today, Monday, that a former professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine donated one billion dollars to the City University of New York, the largest gift of its kind ever given in the United States, to cover tuition fees for all its students.

Dr. Ruth Gottesman made the donation from the wealth accumulated by her late husband David "Sandy" Gottesman, a Wall Street financier and one of the early investors in Berkshire Hathaway, who died in September 2022.

She said in a joint statement with the school: "I am extremely grateful to my late husband Sandy, for leaving this money in my care, and I am happy to have the honor of making this gift for such a noble cause."

Gottesman joined the medical school in 1968. During her time at the school, she researched learning difficulties in children and established an adult literacy program. She is currently the chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and serves on the board of the Montefiore Health System, the school's affiliated hospital.

Through this gift, all current full-time students will be reimbursed for the Spring 2024 semester tuition, and all future students will attend tuition-free. Tuition at the school is about $60,000 per year, leaving many students in debt of more than $200,000 after graduation.

The school said this transformative gift aims to attract a talented and diverse group of individuals who may not have the means to pursue medical education, adding that it is the largest gift ever given to a medical school in the country.

The school, which enrolls about 1,100 students, is located in the Bronx, the area ranked last in New York State in terms of outcomes and health factors, according to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.