HOF 6.8.25 - Flipbook - Page 9
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, June 8, 2025 9
SANDRA AND MALCOLM
BERMAN
Behind every donation that philanthropists Sandra and Malcolm Berman have made over the years, there is a story.
The Sandra R. Berman Pavilion at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, which houses under one roof the exam and treatment rooms, X-ray center, labs and pharmacy
that a cancer patient might need?
That stemmed from when she had to navigate multiple, spread-out offices as her husband underwent treatment for squamous cell carcinoma.
“Oh, I’d be so confused about where I was going for everything,” she said. “I kept saying that they have to have everything together.”
The Sandra R. Berman Heart Institute at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center?
That had its origins in a day when she started feeling warm, and opening the windows didn’t help. It turned out she was having a heart attack.
“St. Joe’s saved my wife’s life,” Malcolm Berman, 88, said.
You may have seen the Bermans’ name on any
number of centers and programs at multiple hospitals and schools in the Baltimore area, courtesy of a
family charitable foundation that only donates, as
Sandra Berman notes, “if I really am interested in
what they’re doing.”
Luckily, they have wide-ranging interests, and the
wherewithal that comes from Malcolm Berman’s
former Fairfax Savings and Loan, whose parent
company was sold to Susquehanna Bancshares in
2018, and a long career in real estate development — at
one point, he was involved in what ultimately became
the HarborView complex on the Inner Harbor.
“Malcolm worked so hard his whole life that we just
decided we wanted to give back to people that needed
it,” Sandra Berman, 86, said.
For her, philanthropy started early. She remembers
putting some of her allowance in the “tzedakah” boxes
for donations that she would see at school and in her
grandparents’ house.
She grew up in Washington, moving here after
marrying her husband, a Baltimore native, 68 years
ago. They joined Beth El Congregation, which
received one of their first philanthropic donations, to
the Berman-Lipavsky Religious School.
Their philanthropy goes beyond signing checks,
with Sandra Berman in particular serving on multiple
boards that reflect her interests, from health care to
the arts to education.
“It’s important to me to make sure that they’re
doing with it what I think that the money should go
to,” she said.
Dr. John B. Chessare, GBMC’s president and
CEO, said Sandra Berman is an “absolutely actively
engaged” board member. “She is very goal-directed,”
he said. “She made it known to me we needed a new
building.”
Names: Sandra and Malcolm Berman
Ages: Sandra, 86; Malcolm, 88
Hometowns: Sandra, Washington;
Malcolm, Baltimore
Current residence: Pikesville
Education: Sandra: Coolidge High School
in Washington and Villa Julie College;
Malcolm: Baltimore City College and
Baltimore College of Commerce, which later
became part of the University of Baltimore
Career highlights: He was chairman
of Fairfax Savings & Loan; she is
president of the Sandra and Malcolm
Berman Charitable Foundation
Family: Three adult sons, 10 grandchildren,
15 great-grandchildren
In addition to the pavilion, the Bermans supported
the medical center’s cancer institute, as well as a
comprehensive breast care center, both of which bear
their names. They are also behind the Brain and Spine
Institute at Sinai Hospital.
The Bermans have also donated to Stevenson
University, which Sandra Berman attended when it
was Villa Julie College. Today, the School of Nursing
and Health Professions bears her name.
“It’s a flagship program for Stevenson,” said Elliot
Hirshman, the university president. “It’s just really
central for what Stevenson is.”
Hirshman called the couple “inseparable,” and
said they each bring unique contributions beyond
the monetary.
“They’re really inspiring as a couple,” he said.
“They’re very different.”
Malcolm will share ideas on business strategies,
Hirshman said, while Sandra is “insightful.”
“She brings innovative ideas, ‘What about trying
this?’ ” he said of her service on the school’s board of
trustees. “She connects the dots.”
Currently under construction at the university
is the future Sandra and Malcolm Berman Family
Performing Arts Center.
They note that they have a grandson, Jason Michael
Berman, who is a film producer, and have a lifelong
passion for the arts, especially opera.
“Baltimore is a cosmopolitan city, and you should
havethesymphony,youshouldhaveopera,youshould
have theater,” said Sandra Berman, who serves on the
board of the Maryland Opera.
Last year, Towson University opened a Holocaust
educational center named after her. It continues work
she has done in the past, as a facilitator in conversations between Holocaust survivors and high school
students.
These days, she is busy with the multiple boards she
serves on, which include the Enoch Pratt Free Library
and Kennedy Krieger Institute, as well as her growing family — they are expecting a 16th great-grandchild soon.
Shehopeshavingthefamilynameonandinsomany
buildings in the area will instill in her descendants the
same spirit of giving that she and her husband share.
“It’s teaching them to be philanthropic,” she said,
“and I think that’s important.”
The name recognition goes beyond family, of
course.
“I can be walking in a hall, or I can be in a restaurant, and somebody I don’t even know will come over
and say, ‘Thank you for saving my life,'” she said. “It
makes me feel very good that we’re able to help.”
— Jean Marbella