Stanley C. Tuttleman
Founder (deceased)
Stanley C. Tuttleman was a man with the Midas touch who made a fortune manufacturing clothing and then gave away millions to causes throughout Philadelphia.
Mr. Tuttleman's philanthropy is legendary. He funded, among others, the Tuttleman Contemporary Art Gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Franklin Institute's Tuttleman Omniverse Theater; the Tuttleman Library at Gratz College; the Tuttleman Chapel at Temple Adath Israel; the Tuttleman Imaging Center at Graduate Hospital; the Tuttleman Learning Center at Temple University and Philadelphia University; and the Tuttleman Sculpture Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
A 1936 graduate of Overbrook High School, Mr. Tuttleman earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1940 at the University of Chicago. He enlisted in the Army in 1942. Mr. Tuttleman saw action during World War II as a field artillery officer in North Africa and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He was discharged in 1945. After the war, Mr. Tuttleman worked at the Wilson Bros. clothing manufacturing plant in Arthurdale, W.Va., until 1953.
He returned to Philadelphia and married Edna Shanis, who brought two children to the marriage, and the couple had three more children. They settled in Bala Cynwyd, PA until moving to Merion Station in 1982. Mr. Tuttleman founded Quakertown shirt manufacturers, where he employed 100 people to make shirts for the Hathaway label. In 1960, he opened his first store, the Corner House, which sold inexpensive women's clothing. Within 10 years, he opened 14 more stores in the northeastern United States.
In the early 1970s, Mr. Tuttleman co-founded Mast Industries, which under his leadership became one of the world's largest clothing manufacturers, with factories in nine countries. He sold it to the Limited in 1979 and remained with the company until 1983.
Mr. Tuttleman never retired. Instead, at the age of 70 he began biking hundreds and hundreds of miles with a group of demons who call themselves the AKs, after a Yiddish term for old-timers. They met every Sunday morning behind the Art Museum wearing bright red shirts and black shorts to begin a 100-mile trip.
Mr. Tuttleman claimed to be the oldest person to compete in the Assault on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, the tallest mountain in the eastern United States. He rode a bicycle from border to border in Colorado's Ride the Rockies three years in a row. He biked in Israel, Vienna and Prague. The AKs marked their 60th, 70th and 80th birthdays by donating benches with nameplates in Fairmount Park.
Stanley Tuttleman passed away in August 2006 at the age of 87. "When I first met Stanley in 1991, I felt that I was in the presence of a great man," said Mark Solomon, founder of CMS, a financial-services firm. "He was the smartest man I ever met. This is a huge loss to Philadelphia - all you have to do is ride around the city and you can see his mark."
Edna Shanis Tuttleman
Founder
Edna Tuttleman grew up in Chester and Philadelphia. Edna enrolled in Temple University and became Sophmore, Junior and Senior class president. No female had ever held the office of Temple class president until then. She graduated from Temple University during World War II, a time when many young Americans felt a call to national service. After working in the accounting department at RCA in Camden, Edna Tuttleman enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), a newly formed branch of the Navy. She received officer’s training at Smith College in Massachusetts, eventually achieving the rank of lieutenant (junior grade), and was assigned to encode and decode secret communications at a naval base in Boston.
After the war, she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on the G.I. Bill. (A passionate art collector and supporter of young artists, Tuttleman later endowed the directorship of the academy.) Edna Tuttleman then spent two decades running the design operations of Corner House, a ladies apparel manufacturing and retail firm launched by her husband, Stanley. The company was eventually sold to The Limited Stores. During those busy, productive years, Edna Tuttleman raised five children; Zev, Carol, Jan, Steven and David. She became the President of the Board of the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, and sat on numerous boards including ICA, the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts and Temple University. She has received many awards, honors and honorary degrees. The Edna S. Tuttleman Symposium for Jewish Women has been established in her honor. She is an avid art collector of contemporary American art.
Although retired, Edna Tuttleman continued to shape the Philadelphia region through the generosity of her and her husband, the effects of which are inescapable: The Tuttleman Center at Philadelphia University, the Tuttleman Library at Gratz College, the Tuttleman IMAX Theater at the Franklin Institute Science Museum, the Tuttleman Center at Graduate Hospital and the Edna Shanis Tuttleman Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Contemporary Art represent just a portion of their legacy. Edna Tuttleman and her husband, Stan, are among Temple University’s most generous benefactors. Gifts from the Tuttleman Family Foundation have transformed Temple, making possible the construction of the Main Campus’ academic epicenter, the Tuttleman Learning Center, and the creation of Tuttleman Counseling Services at the Tuttleman Counseling Center, a place where students can discuss their emotional, educational and career concerns.