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The fortune: Frank M. Freimann (1905–1968) was born in Austria-Hungary and came to the United States at nine. He rose through the Magnavox Company, came to Fort Wayne with the company's headquarters move as an executive vice-president, and served as Magnavox's president and chief executive for eighteen years, until his death in 1968. Magnavox — defense electronics and consumer electronics from Fort Wayne — was one of the city's largest industrial employers, and Freimann's fortune was the salary-and-stock fortune of the man who ran it.
What it left: Freimann arranged to give after his death, through the Frank Freimann Charitable Trust. The trust's posthumous gift paid in large part for the development of Freimann Square, the 4.6-acre park square at the center of downtown (a federal grant provided the land), dedicated on September 27, 1973 — Arts United's published timeline gives 1972 for the dedication, and the city's and the Genealogical Society's accounts give September 27, 1973; the 1973 date is the one the contemporary record supports. At Notre Dame, Freimann gave $500,000 toward the Memorial (Hesburgh) Library, and Freimann chairs in electrical engineering (an estate gift) and physics (1980, underwritten by the trust) carry his name. The trust was also one of the backers of the botanical conservatory in the legacy entry below.
Sources:
- City of Fort Wayne — Freimann Square history: the trust's gift, the federal land grant, the September 27, 1973 dedication.
- Allen County Genealogical Society timeline, from the Journal Gazette — the dedication date.
- Notre Dame Observer and university records — the $500,000 library gift; the Freimann chairs.
- Arts United annual report timeline — Freimann Square dedicated 1972 (the conflicting date, carried as published).