Banker Gives $35 Million for University of Chicago Arts Center

By Laurence Arnold

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- At 89, David Logan puts in a full day at Mercury Investments in Chicago and fulfills his youthful wish to become a teacher by giving to academia.

The investment banker and his wife gave $35 million on May 4 to help build the $100 million Reva and David Logan Center for Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Chicago, which is scheduled to open in 2011.

Last year, Logan endowed a faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. At Duke University, he and his wife support work documenting 3,000 hours of audio of great jazz musicians, taped in the 1950s and 1960s by Logan's friend and Life magazine photojournalist W. Eugene Smith.

Logan talked to me by phone about his passion for the arts and the University of Chicago, where he earned an undergraduate degree in liberal arts in 1939 and a law degree in 1941.

Arnold: The center will house theaters, art studios, exhibition space, music practice rooms and a film screening room. What did you find appealing about this project?

Logan: One, it's the school my wife and I went to. Two, our family (he and his wife have three sons and nine grandchildren) has been involved in the arts as far back as I can think, from the time my parents had opera records to the time they took me to the Jewish theater, and through the fact that I represented a lot of artists as a lawyer.

Advising Artists

Arnold: How did you become a philanthropist?

Logan: My wife sat me down one night and said, `David, let's not get into the business of buying art to make money. If we buy art to make money, it won't really be art, it'll be investments.' So she says, `Let's take what we have, let's use our assets' -- which weren't all that great then -- `and support young people.' And we did that, and some of the young people became well known. I was the free legal adviser of any artist around.

Arnold: Is the University of Chicago gift consistent with that philosophy?

Logan: We don't do buildings; we do programs. But when I saw this coming up, I said, you know, maybe we ought to put our name on something.

Arnold: You're a collector of photography and of artist- illustrated books. Why photography?

Baby Pictures

Logan: I went to the hospital for the birth of our first child 60 years ago, and all the men were taking pictures of their little babies. I bought a camera, and the crazy guy I am, also bought enlargement equipment. I messed around with it and was just awful. I saw a wonderful picture in Life, and I called Life and I said who did that? They said, ``Gene Smith, head of photography here,'' and gave me his home phone. I called, and we became friends. He sent me to great bookstores in New York and I started buying books on photography.

Arnold: How about the illustrated books?

Logan: One of the great dealers in New York who specialized in photography books said, `I have a book by Miro. It's the most beautiful book you've ever seen.' I said I wasn't interested in that. He said, `I'm going to ship it to you.' It had a leather- carved binding and these gorgeous color prints by Miro. We ended up, I think, with the best collection in the United States, which is at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. We gave them 500 books.

Arnold: What does the word philanthropist mean to you?

Logan: I don't like to be an investor; I like to be a partner. My next project is going to be medical. My wife has Alzheimer's. I think what's going on in that field is very difficult, and something can be done, and it's not being done.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: May 14, 2007 00:09 EDT

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