Business & brands / Visual art
Eli Broad
1933–2021 · homebuilder, financier, philanthropist
Raised in Detroit, he built his first houses in the city's suburbs, founded what became KB Home, and later became a major art and education philanthropist.
- Born
New York City (the Bronx), New York- Died
Los Angeles, California
aged 87- Detroit years
- 1939–1960
- Field
- Business & brands, Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Broad was born in the Bronx to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, and the family moved to Detroit when he was six; his father was a union organizer who ran five-and-dime stores. He went through Detroit Public Schools, graduated from Central High School in 1951 and studied accounting at Michigan State, becoming the youngest CPA in the state's history at that time. He briefly taught accounting at the Detroit Institute of Technology. In 1956–1957 he and Donald Kaufman built their first model homes in Detroit's northern suburbs, selling basement-free houses to young families; within two years they had built about 600. In 1960 they moved the business to Phoenix, fearing Detroit's reliance on the auto industry. Kaufman & Broad (later KB Home) and the insurer SunAmerica made him a billionaire, and he gave much of it away to museums, education and science, including the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State.
Highlights
- Graduated from Detroit Central High School, 1951
- Co-founded Kaufman & Broad (now KB Home) in Detroit, 1957
- Built about 600 homes in the Detroit suburbs within two years
- Built SunAmerica, sold to AIG for $18 billion in 1998
- Founded The Broad museum in Los Angeles (2015)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1940s–1951
Detroit Central High School
He graduated from Detroit's oldest public high school in 1951.
Worked here · 1956
Detroit Institute of Technology
Closed · 1981
He taught night classes in accounting here as an assistant professor; the college closed in 1981.