The UCLA Department of Philosophy is delighted to be the beneficiary of a $20 million gift from Jordan and Christine Kaplan and Ken Panzer to establish the Kaplan Panzer Philosophy Endowment. As part of a larger $25 million gift to the UCLA College of Letters and Sciences’ Division of Humanities, the gift is the largest received by the division, and one of the largest ever to any university philosophy department.
Jordan Kaplan, his wife, Christine, and Jordan’s longtime business partner, Ken Panzer, made this extraordinary gift to honor Jordan’s parents, Renee and David Kaplan, both of whom were members of the UCLA faculty for almost 60 years, and to recognize his father’s lasting contributions to the study of philosophy.
Jordan Kaplan is the CEO and president of Douglas Emmett Inc., a real estate investment trust. David Kaplan, the Hans Reichenbach Professor of Scientific Philosophy, is a renowned scholar of philosophical logic and the philosophy oflanguage. Renee Kaplan was a clinical professor of psychology and the director of training at UCLA Student Psychological Services. Both Renee and David received their undergraduate degrees and their doctorates at UCLA.
The study of philosophy has been a cornerstone of the humanities at UCLA since the campus’ founding in 1919. An endowed chair in philosophy that was established in 1928 was the first in UCLA’s history. The Kaplan Panzer Philosophy Endowment will help the Philosophy Department recruit and retain top faculty, attract and support the most outstanding graduate students from around the country and the world, and offer an enriched undergraduate curriculum. It will also enable the Department to offer intensive two-year research cycles that focus on particular areas of philosophical thought and convene distinguished scholars at UCLA for conferences, talks, and workshops.
‘We are proud to participate in UCLA’s Centennial Campaign and be able to meaningfully support Humanities and Philosophy, areas of study that we feel are particularly important now to the health of our modern society,” Jordan Kaplan said. “Our hope is that this gift will encourage others to recognize the importance of these departments and join us in providing them with very much needed support.” In recognition of the gift, UCLA’s Humanities Building has been renamed Renee and David Kaplan Hall.