Morris Silverman, 93; Rental Entrepreneur Became Philanthropist

Morris “Marty” Silverman, 93, a philanthropist who established the nation’s richest prize for medical research and donated millions of dollars to various causes, died Thursday in a hospital in Manhattan, where he had built the leasing company National Equipment Rental. No official cause of death was given.

Silverman used the $40-million proceeds from the 1984 sale of his company to establish the Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundation after his wife died a year later.

In 2000, Silverman pledged $50 million to create the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. It disburses annual awards worth $500,000, the largest medical research award in the United States and second in the world behind Sweden’s $1.3-million Nobel Prize.

Silverman’s $300-million foundation has donated to academic, Jewish, veterans and social causes, including a Holocaust museum in Houston, housing for thousands of former Soviet Jews in Israel and programs for neglected children and indigent seniors. Silverman also created the $100-million nonprofit Renaissance Corp. of Albany, N.Y.

Silverman, who grew up in Troy, N.Y., attended New York University and Albany Law School. While serving in the Army during World War II, he rose to the rank of major.