Modest-Living Engineer Leaves Pittsburgh Foundation $37 Million

PITTSBURGH, PA - Raymond Suckling lived an unassuming lifestyle. He loved White Castle hamburgers, drove a Subaru and wore Velcro sneakers, according to the son of his longtime companion.

So after the retired engineering executive died in 2013, no one expected him to leave $37.1 million to The Pittsburgh Foundation, one of the city’s largest philanthropic organizations. The recently finalized bequest will provide $500,000 annual grants to the Sewickley Public Library in the Sewickley Valley Hospital Foundation, both in suburban Pittsburgh.

The bequest also provides $500,000 annually to the foundation for programs and services benefitting low-income youth and families around Sewickley.

“Gifts of this magnitude are always very thoughtfully made,” Foundation president and CEO Maxwell King said in a statement. “They serve as powerful testaments to the community foundation model and the compact between donors and staff that ensures their intentions will be honored beyond their lifetimes.”

The gift is the second-largest in the foundation’s 73-year-history, topped only by donation made by the late inventor and entrepreneur Charles E. Kaufman, who died in 2010. Kaufman donated $50 million, of which $40 million is being used to fund scientific research at Pennsylvania universities.

Buddy Hallett, a son of the late Betty Hallett, Suckling’s longtime companion, said no one suspected Suckling was wealthy.

“The only hint we had was that when we went out, Raymond always wanted to pay for everything,” Hallett said. “Others in his situation might have chosen a more extravagant lifestyle.”

According to the foundation, Suckling inherited most of his money from his parents. His father, Raymond C. Suckling, was a vice president with Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. At the time of his death in 1934, he had been recruited to serve as president of the Standard Steel Spring Co.

Photo via The Pittsburgh Foundation.