May 2007

Advancement Report

GW Benefactor Endows Animal Law Scholarships and More

By Jeannette Belliveau

Harry Truman once said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get
a dog.”

When Julius Fleischman followed the late president’s advice, he set off a chain
of events that bought him canine companionship— and much more.

In memory of his beloved golden retriever, Samantha, who died four years ago, Fleischman recently endowed the Samantha Scholarship in Animal Law with a $50,000 gift.

At a ceremony in February, law student Eden Gray received the first Samantha Scholarship, noting she was “sincerely thankful to Julius Fleischman for endowing this award.” Fleischman, a District native and former GW student who celebrated his 85th birthday in April, has supported GW with eight gifts since 2005, including:

- $55,000 for the Julius Fleischman Scholarship, which provides assistance to students who are legally blind. Although macular degeneration has rendered Fleischman legally blind, he continues to ride Metro, using a white cane to navigate;
- $50,000 for undergraduate scholarships in memory of Christine Waldvogel, for a decade a dear friend of Fleischman who ran an antiques shop in Waldorf, Md.;
- $50,000 for the Samantha Scholarship in Animal Law, the first donation to GW in memory of a pet;
- a $50,000 scholarship in memory of another dog, HoJo, to the Animal Law Clinic at the GW Law School;
- $50,000 in memory of
his mother for the Frieda Kobernick Fleischman Lecture in Judaic Studies;
- $100,000 in memory of his father for the Joseph Fleischman Fellowship in Real Estate Studies at the GW School of Business;
- $107,000 to create two rooms in Gelman Library equipped with technology to assist the visually impaired; and
- a $50,000 endowment to support the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Fleischman describes the fulfillment that comes from helping students acquire a first-rate education and the sense of family he has forged with members of the GW community.

“Without a doubt,” Fleischman says, “GW has become like a family to me, the family I don’t have, just like coming home. I can’t thank them enough. I love them all.”

The path that brought Fleischman to GW began after he returned with a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars from fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
Fleischman attended night school at GW, taking a class in real estate for one semester. That one class was all it took for him to establish a small real-estate empire in Washington, D.C. He constructed shopping centers and residential developments and, in 1967, built a Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in Temple Hills, Md.

He found a black Lab at a gas station one day, who received the name HoJo and guarded his namesake motel, curled up behind the counter. After HoJo passed on, Fleischman was given a second dog, Samantha, a 1-year-old golden retriever. They became fast friends, playing in the yard together and taking walks in their Hillcrest neighborhood of Southeast D.C.

In 2001, Fleischman finally sold the motel and founded the Julius Fleischman Foundation with the proceeds. “One day, and I don’t know why, I contacted GW,”
Fleischman says. He felt
an immediate rapport with officials throughout the University, from President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who could readily match Fleischman’s jokes and jests, to Christy Willis, director of disability support services.

“He has created quite a legacy,” says Laurel Price Jones, GW’s vice president for advancement. “The endowments he’s established have provided—and will continue to give—young people the opportunity to experience the power of a GW education and to ensure that his own priorities and memories endure.”

To learn about how donors like Julius Fleischman are helping GW advance to the next level of academic excellence, visit www.advancement.gwu.edu.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu