Bernard Rapoport

Bernard Rapoport Chairman Emeritus Altig.

"In 1951, he and a partner founded the American Income Life Insurance Company, which he developed into a multi-million dollar business. Using his wealth to support a host of local, national, and international organizations, Rapoport was named by Fortune magazine as one of America's forty most generous philanthropists, unstinting in his support for education, social justice, and liberal political causes.

"In his memoir, Rapoport recalls a life of hard work and a philosophy of giving back to the community that made him a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. He explains how his early experience of poverty and his youthful acquaintance with Marxists and New Deal economists shaped him into a capitalist with a conscience, one who, as he says, "could never understand why people who have a lot aren't willing to share."

"Rapoport goes on to describe his liberal activism as a support of Democrats from Ralph Yarborough to Senate majority leader Tom Daschle to his good friends Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, an underwriter of the political journal The Texas Observer, a regent of the University of Texas Systems, a supporter of the state of Israel, and a champion of at-risk students...

"Bernard Rapoport lives in Waco, Texas, where he is head of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation. Don Carleton is Director and J.R. Parten Fellow in the Archives of American History and Ben F. Love Fellow in Communication at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin."

"Founded American Income Life Insurance Company in 1951, growing it into a multi-million dollar enterprise and running it for more than 40 years before selling it in 1994. He established the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation in 1987, benefiting childcare, education, the Waco community and other enterprises."


 * United States Consensus Council Roster, Search for Common Ground
 * US Director, Jerusalem Foundation
 * Former Director (1979), Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions
 * Director, Economic Policy Institute