Dick Schulze: Capitalist; Hero

Best Buy founder gives U $40M for diabetes research

The University of Minnesota said today it will receive $40 million for diabetes research from the foundation of Best Buy founder Richard Schulze in what appears to be the second-largest gift in the university’s history.

The money, which will be paid over five years, is also thought to be nationally the second-largest diabetes research donation by an individual or foundation.

My youngest daughter is a Type-1 diabetic.

Thank you Mr. Schulze. I will never ever not shop for anything at Best Buy again.

9 thoughts on “Dick Schulze: Capitalist; Hero

  1. “It may also be possible to avoid the immune system problem altogether by creating insulin producing cells from a patient’s own tissue with stem cell technology.”

    What?!?! You don’t have to slaughter human babies to get this done? How can that be good? 😉

  2. Schulze is such a hilarious story; Best Buy started out as a stereo store/head shop at Hamline and St. Clair in St. Paul (currently occupied by the Encore second hand store) run by a couple of hippies (including Schulze).

    Forty years later, Shulze is one of Minnesota’s most successful capitalists.

    Ain’t America grand?

  3. When Dick gives money away, he goes all out. And to good causes, not trendy shallow organizations.

    St Thomas University
    Mayo cancer in Rochester
    UofM diabetes

  4. It’s nice to see such a gift–sad to say, my first thought was “how much of that came from the city of Richfield’s eminent domain gift to Best Buy?”

    Don’t get me wrong; he is being generous with money he didn’t HAVE to give away. I just wish he’d have been as generous with the taxpayers of a particular Twin Cities suburb by not building his HQ with eminent domain abuse.

  5. As much as I oppose the abuse of eminent domain – and Best Buy and Target were just the biggest beneficiaries – I think it’s safe to say BBY would have made plenty of money either way. Before they moved to Richfield (when I worked for them, as a matter of fact), they occupied four or five buildings in Eden Prairie, and were doing just fine.

    Don’t get me wrong; if $4,000 of that $40,000,000 derived from the political mugging that led to their new HQ, it’s too much. But let’s keep it in perspective.

  6. “It’s only socialism when the beneficiaries are people, not companies”

    Nope- bailing out corporations- be they financial, sports or automobile ones- still qualifies as “socialism”. It’s just as bad to make corporations dependent on the public teat (or simply nationalizing them) as it is individual citizens.

    Aside from the well-deserved criticism of the Bush Administration, though, I don’t know why you’re railing against the Republicans in general on this one, angryclown- it’s the lefty union workers up in Michigan who’re railing against them Southern ‘publicans (with their ferener corporations) fer not voting IN FAVOR of this corporate welfare . . .

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