or a little over $10,000 an acre." The Birch mansion is now used as an administration building at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Birch was said to be a very private man. During his lifetime, he avoided publicity and seldom gave interviews or had his picture taken, though he did have his portrait painted in 1911 by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury. But while he may have been mysterious, it is undeniable that he was admired. Katherine Wilson wrote for Copper Tints magazine that "Stephen Birch is personally little known. Today one of the financial powers in New York City, he shuns publicity and evades acclaim as a captain of industry. But to those who know him he is a man of deep and broad humanity, inspired in all that he does by a keen sense of his responsibility to the national welfare. With his intimates, he is a finely perceptive and generous friend, of an unshakable loyalty. Stephen Birch is an outstanding American." Philanthropy "In 1938 he founded the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation, Inc. to support health service, hospitals and civic organizations. It provided major funding for the Stephen Birch Aquarium-Museum at the University of California, San Diego." Even though 2010 marks the 70th anniversary of his death, his legacy still lives on through this foundation, which recently "made a $10 million contribution to Sharp HealthCare Foundation for Transforming Health Care in San Diego: the Campaign for Sharp Healthcare, the capital campaign launched in 2003 to raise funds for a new health care facility at Sharp Memorial Hospital. In recognition of this generous gift, Sharp will name the new facility the Stephen Birch Healthcare Center at Sharp Memorial Hospital. The Birch contribution is the largest in Sharp's history and brings the total that the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation has donated to Sharp to more than $16 million." References 1873 births 1940 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople Columbia School of Mines alumni New York University alumni People from Mahwah, New Jersey 20th-century American businesspeople