Rita Kaplan: COO, Kaplan Family Foundation, Philanthropist, Social Worker

Factors in career choice: Fast-talking, fast-acting Rita Kaplan didn’t so much choose a career in social work as plunge into it, following the model of her strong, encouraging, and compassionate mother. Turning to social work was inevitable. “I like working with people,” particularly with families, most especially with mothers. Rita had contemplated a career in medicine. While her parents encouraged her choice of careers, they felt medical school admission would be closed to a woman.

Pivotal pointsý Her career and the new directions that came from them included going to the University of Wisconsin at Madison and marrying the equally irrepressible Stanley H. Kaplan whose educational enterprise, and later, Foundation, made them among the most generous husband-and-wife benefactors of the arts, medicine, health care, and Jewish studies. (They have been married for 53 years.)

Obstacles: It took a great deal of courage to face the death of their son Paul, from AIDS some years ago. Rita prides herself on having that fact reflected in The Times obituary. Her mother and father “did not raise her to hide the truth.” Gay causes have since occupied much of her time, in this country and in Israel. Other obstacles? There are none when Rita goes into high gear. She meets challenges head on and either vanquishes them or changes course in such a way that they are co-opted.

Achievements: Of a lifetime of accomplishments, she is most proud, she says, of being able to support organizations and work whose values she respects. She practices a fiercely focused and educated giving, in all senses. “Women get shafted.” They couldn’t have a stronger, more determined advocate than Kaplan coming on, which is just about always. She’s proud to recall a recent remark about her, “Rita stands up and talks from the gut.” The Kaplan Cancer Research Center is just one of her and Stanley’s many major achievements.

Mentors: They began with her immediate family, though roots matter in an ambient but influential way: 87 family members died in Poland, she points out. Her support of Jewish causes, and particularly those that deal with family and children’s services is an almost genetically programmed commitment.

Advice: “Don’t be afraid, let yourself be heard, fight for what you believe in.” She advocates going away to college because of the independence it fosters. She recalls fondly the fear and thrill of looking for a room with her first cousin, Lauren Bacall because dorms were not available. She was turned down numerous times because she was Jewish, but she would not give up.

Future goals: “I’ll always fight battles, you’ll hear my voice.”#

Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001. Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2001.