University to Receive Portion of Helmsley Estate

Cornell will be one of the beneficiaries of the late hotelier Leona Helmsley’s multi-billion dollar estate, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Helmsley, was known as the “queen of mean” according MSNBC, and she was able to amass her estimated $5 billion estate because of her cutthroat business mentality.
According to The New York Times, $40 million of Helmsley’s estate will go to the digestive diseases center, a joint program between Cornell’s Weill Medical College and New York-Presbyterian. While the $40 million will immediately impact the digestive diseases center’s operations, Stephen Cohen, associate provost and executive vice dean for administration and finance at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, expressed the intent for the program to eventually operate from within the planned medical research center. The research center is expected to open in 2013 thanks in a large part to the $135 million donation to the building from Sanford Weill ’55.
Additionally, $2 million will be used “to endow a scholarship at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration,” according to The New York Times.
Cornell spokespeople in Ithaca were unable yesterday to elaborate on the details of how the Hotel School would administer the scholarship or the terms of the financial agreement.
On par with the amount given to the hotel school, Helmsley’s dog Trouble was left with a trust fund valued at $2 million. Initially, the fund was valued at $12 million before a judge reduced its value.