Simon Guggenheim
Values Codes I – H – E – P
John Simon Guggenheim (1867-1941) (commonly known as Simon) was born into one of the world’s wealthiest families.
He moved to Colorado to join the family mining business after college and donated generously to Colorado charities and political causes.
Guggenheim launched a gubernatorial run in 1898 but withdrew months later.
In 1907, the Colorado legislature elected him to a U.S. Senate term.
At its end, he never returned to Colorado and instead moved back to his boyhood home of New York City with his wife, Olga.
Simon Guggenheim
Simon and Olga’s seventeen-year-old son John Simon died of a brain infection in 1923. His parents established the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in his memory with the goal to “add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country.”
Continuing to the present day, the Guggenheim Foundation annually awards 175 prestigious “Guggenheim Fellowships” to mid-career innovators in the social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, and creative arts.
Source
- Mark Rutzik, Breaking New Ground: The Untold Story of Early America’s Jewish Electoral Pioneers – 1788 to 1920, 2025.
Mark Rutzick is the curator of this Simon Guggenheim exhibit.