altruist

Other forms: altruists

Definitions of altruist

1. noun

   someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being
   synonyms: philanthropist

   examples:

   Andrew Carnegie

   United States industrialist and philanthropist who endowed education and public libraries and research trusts (1835-1919)

   Peter Cooper

   United States industrialist who built the first American locomotive; founded Cooper Union in New York City to offer free courses in the arts and sciences (1791-1883)

   Ezra Cornell

   United States businessman who unified the telegraph system in the United States and who in 1865 (with Andrew D. White) founded Cornell University (1807-1874)

   Solomon Guggenheim

   United States philanthropist; son of Meyer Guggenheim who created several foundations to support the arts (1861-1949)

   John Harvard

   American philanthropist who left his library and half his estate to the Massachusetts college that now bears his name (1607-1638)

   Milton Snavely Hershey

   United States confectioner and philanthropist who created the model industrial town of Hershey, Pennsylvania; founded an industrial school for orphan boys (1857-1945)

   Johns Hopkins

   United States financier and philanthropist who left money to found the university and hospital that bear his name in Baltimore (1795-1873)

   Andrew William Mellon

   United States financier and philanthropist (1855-1937)

   Alfred Bernhard Nobel

   Swedish chemist remembered for his invention of dynamite and for the bequest that created the Nobel prizes (1833-1896)

   First Viscount Nuffield

   British industrialist who manufactured automobiles and created a philanthropic foundation (1877-1963)

   John Davison Rockefeller

   United States industrialist who made a fortune in the oil business and gave half of it away (1839-1937)

   Commodore Vanderbilt

   United States financier who accumulated great wealth from railroad and shipping businesses (1794-1877)

   Elihu Yale

   English philanthropist who made contributions to a college in Connecticut that was renamed in his honor (1649-1721)

   type of:

   bestower, conferrer, donor, giver, presenter

   person who makes a gift of property