Glorya Kaufman, the philanthropist whose name graces the new Community Center at the Wende Museum, has passed. She was the benefactor of a new school of dance at the University of Southern California, the USC Kaufman School of Dance, and also built its home, the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center.
The Wende Museum’s founder and director Justin Jampol offered “Her generosity and her belief in the power of the arts transformed cultural life in Los Angeles, and left a lasting mark on the Wende Museum…Glorya was a visionary who believed that the arts could change lives. Her support and guidance made the Glorya Kaufman Community Center possible. What had been a dormant building next to the museum has become a space full of life. Today it hosts free performances, workshops, classes, and other events for people of all ages… She will be profoundly missed.”
Born Glorya Pinkis in Detroit in 1930, her father was the production manager of Automotive News and her mother was a homemaker who held leadership roles at various charities.
In many interviews, Kaufman recalled dancing while standing on her father’s toes when she was a child. She also loved Detroit’s jazz clubs, enriching her enthusiasm for music and dance.
Kaufman was diagnosed with strabismus as a child. This vision problem, which causes one eye to look in a different direction than the other contributed to her interest in helping those with disabilities.
In 1954 Kaufman married Donald Bruce Kaufman, a builder and entrepreneur who in 1957 partnered with businessman and prominent philanthropist Eli Broad to co-found a homebuilding company called Kaufman & Broad (now KB Home.)
In 1983, Donald died in a plane crash, and Glorya threw herself into philanthropy. She created the Glorya Kaufman Foundation and dedicated its first major project, the Donald Bruce Kaufman Brentwood Branch Library, to her late husband, who had been a passionate and prolific reader.
Kaufman is survived by her four children, Curtis, Gayl, Laura and Zuade; 10 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
