James J. Couzens - Philanthrophy

Philanthrophy

Couzens established the Children's Fund of Michigan with a $10,000,000 grant. He also gave $1,000,000 for relief in Detroit and began a fund to make loans to the physically handicapped. Under Dr Frank Norton and Dr Kenneth Richard Gibson and their secretary, Kathryn Hutchison, the Children's Fund, among other things, provided free health and dental work for indigent Detroit children. The Fund was set up with a 25 year life span, and the project ended in the mid-1950s.

In response to the Bath School Disaster, in which Andrew Kehoe, an embittered school board member and treasurer, planted dynamite in the basement of a school in Bath Township, Michigan, Couzens gave $75,000 to fund rebuilding, and the new school was dedicated as the "James Couzens Agricultural School". He donated $600,000 to the University of Michigan for the building of a residence hall for female nursing students; it was named Couzens Hall in his honor.

in the 1930s, Couzens donated $1 million to Children's Hospital of Michigan, in response to a birthday request from his wife for "a simple box in which to keep my pearls." Couzens complied, including a note within the box describing the $1 million gift, stating "My dear, your new pearls will be all the children who are eventually treated there." Today, Children's Hospital of Michigan is part of the Detroit Medical Center.

Disturbed by the failures of low-incoming housing projects that came out of the depression, he believed in another way. He contributed $550,000 of his own personal money to the $300,000 from Oakland Housing to create a managed low-income housing project called Westacres, in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The project gave the low income factory working man a chance to own a home. The homes were located on 1 acre of land and the owners were required to farm the land to provide food for their families when seasonal layoffs took place. The neighborhood became so much more, a community of caring for one another and traditions is still going strong nearly 75 years later. Westacres likes to say that it is one of the most successful government projects.