$25 million gift to university from Rozanne and Billy Rosenthal

A department in the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business has been renamed in honor of a Fort Worth couple who made a $25 million donation.

The newly named Rozanne and Billy Rosenthal Department of Management will be able to “dramatically increase its efforts around research, teaching, students, faculty members and academic innovation” because of the gift from the two alumni, Rozanne Rosenthal, and Billy Rosenthal, UT Austin officials announced.

This is the first academic department in the business school to be named as the result of a donation.

The Rosenthal family founded Standard Meat Company in Fort Worth. In 1935, Ben H. Rosenthal, a Russian Jewish immigrant, started the business when he “rented a meat locker, bought some beef in the nearby Stockyards, processed it, and sold it from door to door to local clubs and hotels,” the release said.

Standard Meat Company is in its fourth generation of family ownership.

Billy Rosenthal told UT officials that he remembers his grandfather giving away money even when the company’s finances were tight and his father’s pride in giving to people and causes he supported.

Rozanne Rosenthal said, “I was also taught that giving was just something you did naturally and that it felt good to give of yourself.”

Her family’s long history of volunteerism led her to found and lead the Fort Worth affiliate of Susan G. Komen to honor her best friend and UT roommate, Joan Katz, a four-time breast cancer survivor.

“This gift is a powerful example of what can happen when the values and sense of purpose of a family align with the mission of a department,” said Caroline Bartel, chair of the Rosenthal Department of Management, in the release. “At the heart of what we do as a department is in the human part of business enterprise — how people motivate, influence and lead others, and how they make decisions and work together to strengthen the vitality and success of their companies. The Rosenthals’ gift will greatly amplify our ability to make such a difference.”