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63
purchased
Hope Plantation
near Charleston, South Carolina where he
hunted birds. He also acquired two ranches and a dairy farm just outside
Reno and became active in philanthropic work in the area. He continued
to be active in Santa Barbara and usually spent fall and spring here.
Philanthropist
Known as a multifaceted, multitalented man, Fleischmann was a
manufacturer, explorer, naturalist, conservationist, capitalist, investor,
aviator, yachtsman, hunter, author, banker, consummate outdoorsman,
and philanthropist. In evaluating his family for the forward of P. Christiaan
Klieger’s
The Fleischmann Yeast Family
, Max Fleischmann’s great grand
nephew, Christian R. Holmes IV, wrote, “I see this reappearing drive to live
large lives, sustained by unusual energy and creativity… I have found some
to possess an unusual elegance and intelligence, many of them to be quite
caring.”
His assessment fits Max Fleischmann, who lived large and gave
generously to causes that captured his interest. Even after his death, and
for 20 years after the death of his wife Sarah in 1960, the Fleischmann
Foundation gave $192 million to charities mostly in Nevada and
California. Dewy Schurman, writing in the June 2, 1978 edition of the
Santa Barbara News-Press,
said, “Some of those gifts literally helped shape
the cultural and historical character of the community.”
Probably his most enduring gift was the formation of the Santa Barbara
Foundation. Like his parents before him, Fleischmann supported local
band concerts and paid for a summer series in Santa Barbara in 1926. As
his philanthropy to his adopted community grew, he saw the need for an
agency to fund worthy causes. In 1928 he invited 25 prominent Santa
Barbarans to join with him in founding the Santa Barbara Foundation.
Accepting the call were well-known names like Chase, Storke, Hoffman,
and Murphy. To get the Foundation going, he gave 3,400 shares of his
family’s business as seed money. In 1930, he deeded the Carrillo-Hill
adobe, which he had purchased in order to save it from demolition,
to the Foundation as its permanent headquarters. Appropriately, the
Foundation’s first grant was to fund the Santa Barbara Band. Over the
years, Fleischmann continued to donate generously to the Foundation.
In the 1930s the
Santa Barbara
Yacht Harbor had
no slips and only
one landing. Sand
build up behind the
breakwater increased
the beach to the west
and added parking
spaces to the popular
area.
(Courtesy Santa
Barbara Historical
Museum)