Honoring Joel Fleishman

Joel L. Fleishman, founding director of the public policy program at Duke University, scholar of philanthropy, wine connoisseur, and the center of a legendary network of friends, has died. He was 90 years old.

Fleishman served as a transformative faculty member at Duke for more than 53 years, said President Vincent Price.

“Joel Fleishman was a remarkable leader, person and scholar who played a prominent role in Duke University’s growth and development,” said Price. “For more than half a century, Joel was a valued colleague, mentor and friend to thousands of members of the Duke community. As we mourn his passing, we also honor his profound impact here at Duke and far beyond.”

On Founder’s Day in 2009, the university presented him with one of its highest honors, the University Medal for Meritorious Service.

“With energy, optimism and generosity that were boundless, Joel Fleishman embodied the best of Duke University,” said Provost Alec D. Gallimore. “His devoted service to this institution and its people is a model that every Duke leader can emulate.”

Fleishman was a professor of law and public policy at Duke. He held three degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: an A.B. in history; an M.A. in drama and a J.D.; and an L.L.M. from Yale University.

Founding public policy at Duke

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Former Duke University President Terry Sanford wanted to establish a public policy program and knew the right man for the job was Joel Fleishman, who served as his legal advisor during Sanford’s tenure as governor. In 1971, Sanford persuaded Fleishman to leave his leadership position at Yale University and return to North Carolina.

Fleishman had developed a plan for integrating aspects of ethics, economics, political science and history into the study of public policy in a report for the Ford Foundation. Using that template, he founded the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs, serving as director until 1983. The first classes were taught in the spring of 1972. In those early years, Fleishman obtained funds from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support the undergraduate major and from the Ford Foundation for the Master of Public Policy program.

“The idea of a school of public policy is to get smart people with lots of different perspectives working in the same faculty, having to listen to one another and being sure to take account of people's perspectives from one another because that's how you build really good public-policy people,” Fleishman said during an interview with the Rutherfurd Living History program.

In 2009, the institute became Duke’s youngest school: the Sanford School of Public Policy, currently led by Interim Dean Manoj Mohanan.

“Today, we mourn the loss of a visionary leader who, 53 years ago, laid the cornerstone of our public policy program. Joel Fleishman’s unwavering commitment and pioneering spirit not only shaped our program and led to our Sanford School of Public Policy, but he also inspired countless students and faculty to excel and reach their outrageous ambitions. As we honor his legacy and memory, we pledge to continue the work he began with the deep commitment and care that Joel exhibited every day of his life,” Mohanan said.

The Sanford School of Public Policy established the Joel Fleishman Distinguished Professorship of Public Policy in honor of the school’s intellectual forefather and founding director, which was announced at a celebration of his 85^th birthday in April 2019.

In 2021-2022, Duke celebrated 50 years of public policy with many celebrations and events, including a fireside chat between Fleishman and Duke alumnus David Rubenstein, Fleishman’s longtime friend.

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Fleishman taught Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Not-For-Profit Law Management for more than 50 years. In May 2023, he bid farewell to the classroom. Although he stopped teaching, he continued to serve in a leadership role for several centers through September 2024.

“Joel’s expertise was a gift for the law students who were fortunate enough to take his class. He not only inspired a deep appreciation of philanthropy in our students, but cultivated an understanding of the important role law plays in the governance of non-profits and private foundations. Joel’s wisdom greatly benefited Duke, but his impact can be felt throughout the non-profit sector, as his students became force multipliers in his mission to lift up and serve others,” said Kerry Abrams, James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke Dean of the School of Law and Distinguished Professor of Law.

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Service to Duke University

Fleishman’s fund-raising and administrative ability led to his being appointed as chairman of the Duke Capital Campaign for the Arts & Sciences and Engineering in 1982. It was the university’s first campaign of its kind. He hired staff, cultivated donors, and created a database from scratch. The campaign raised more than $200 million in endowment funds and a total of $500 million over all.

Such success led to his appointment to a series of administrative posts: vice president of the university in 1985, senior vice president in 1988, and first senior vice president in 1993.

Some of the Capital Campaign fundraising was used for the construction of the Sanford Building, completed in 1994. The central space is named Fleishman Commons in his honor.

A man of faith

Fleishman grew up in Fayetteville, N.C., in a Conservative Jewish family. His father was cantor of the Beth Israel Synagogue, a role that Fleishman later took over and filled for 50 years. For high school, he studied at the Talmudical Academy in Baltimore.

In an interview with the Rutherfurd Living History program at Sanford, he said, “I believe that the core of Judaism is very basically a social-justice core and not only broadly speaking but just in terms of dealing with other people, it means that you have to behave in a way that is consonant with that tradition.”

Giving is an important tenant of faith in Judaism, as are good works, or mitzvahs, as commanded by God. Fleishman practiced both, through his personal generosity to friends and organizations, and through his academic study of and service in the field of philanthropy.

An example of this practice is his relationship with Mesorah Publications, a small press that specialized in translating and selling important Jewish religious texts at affordable prices. In 1987, Fleishman walked into the office of the press in Brooklyn to thank them for their work, and left promising the surprised rabbis he would help create a foundation to address their financial woes. He was a founding member of the board of trustees of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation. The press has since published hundreds of books in Hebrew, English, French, Spanish and Russian.   

Friends and the Holiday Card List

Throughout his life, Fleishman cultivated a vast network of friends that covered the globe. He was endlessly interested in people, in sharing good food, wine and conversation, and in bringing people together to work towards a goal. He especially loved mentoring students during and after their days at Duke.

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“People were always calling him for advice. He had a photographic memory and could immediately make a connection and put people in touch,” said Pamela Ladd, his executive assistant for 37 years. “The influence he had on countless lives, both young and old, is profound.”

Through his connections and skills, Fleishman began writing a monthly wine column for Vanity Fair, which continued for eight years. He had tried to recruit Harold Evans, editor of the Times of London, to Sanford. After Evans married Tina Brown, she was appointed editor of Vanity Fair and recruited Fleishman to write for the magazine after hearing him talk about wine over dinner.

One way Fleishman maintained this network was through his annual holiday card list. More than 2,600 people received a card with a poem he composed reflecting on the past year. “It was only about a dozen years ago that he relented on his insistence on handwritten addresses and only a few years that he stopped writing a personal handwritten note to add to each card,” Ladd said.

For years, Bruce Kuniholm, founding dean of the Sanford School, made a game of exploring the extent of the “Friends of Joel.” While traveling, he would ask people if they knew Fleishman, and received many positive responses, in places ranging from a cruise ship in the Baltic Seas, at a Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo to an airport in Istanbul.

Scholar of Philanthropy

Fleishman took part-time leave from Duke from 1993 to 2003 to serve as president of the Atlantic Philanthropic Service Company, the United States program staff of the Atlantic Philanthropies. He kept his faculty appointments in law and public policy, flying back to Durham to teach at least once a week.

Fleishman wrote and edited numerous books and articles reflecting his long-standing interest in ethics, public policy, and nonprofit organizations. His most recent book, Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow?, was published in 2017 by the Hachette Group. Another book, Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results, co-authored with Thomas Tierney of the Bridgespan Group, was published in 2011 by PublicAffairs. In addition, The Foundation: A Great American Secret—How Private Wealth Is Changing the World, was released in an expanded paperback edition in 2009.

He led several centers at Sanford, including the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society (CSPCS), created in 2008 to research, analyze and promote philanthropy. Fleishman also led the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy and the Professions, established in 1994 through a major gift. The Heyman Center focused its teaching and research activities on ethical issues in public policy decisions, in campaigns for political office, in governmental entities, in nonprofit organizations and in charitable foundations.

As of 2024, he continued to run both centers and the active Foundation Impact Research Group (FIRG) seminars, bringing leaders of foundations or nonprofit organizations to campus to speak about strategic choice-making and impact measurement in their fields.

Fleishman was a founding trustee of the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, N.C., and served as trustee of Brandeis University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the American Friends of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and the Partnership for Public Service. He was formerly chairman of the visiting committee of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and chairman of the board of trustees of the Urban Institute. In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fleishman was a member of the board of directors of the Ralph Lauren Corporation,

Remembering Joel Fleishman: Reflections from Friends

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"My heart weeps for the loss of Joel. I cannot imagine the world without him. He was a cataclysmic mentor to countless. He was the reason I became dean of the Sanford school and why the school was created in the first place. Joel was a tireless advocate for those in need, an unstoppable creative force for solving problems to make the world a better place. He was beloved by so many whose lives he has changed. To me, he was like a father. I miss him deeply,” said former Dean Judith Kelley.

"Joel Fleishman was my mentor, teacher and friend for over 50 years. Joel was a real-life Pied Piper, whose joyful enthusiasm for deep study and good deeds inspired generations of friends and students to join him in attempting to ‘heal the world.’ Joel loved his many friends generously, and he was deeply loved and respected in return. We will mourn him. But the generations of friends and students he inspired and taught will continue his work," said Adam Abram, former chair of the Sanford Board of Visitors.

“Joel Fleishman was an extraordinary human being. Scholar, philosopher, philanthropist; a deeply religious and very kind man, he was--there is no better word to describe him--a mensch. He dedicated his life to thinking strategically about the purpose of education. After he became the President of Duke University, Terry Sanford recruited Joel to develop a vision of public policy at the university, to actualize the concept of putting knowledge in the service of society and then to raise the resources to sustain that concept. Joel understood the importance of crossing disciplinary boundaries and creating a space, intellectual as well as physical, where students and faculty from across the university could meet with each other as well as with those in the public and private sectors who were searching for solutions to some of our society’s thorny, complex problems. Joel was always enthusiastic about giving his time, careful thought and undivided attention to the development of what was first known as the Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs but ultimately became the Sanford School of Public Policy. Joel will always will be the heart and soul of who we are. We will miss him tremendously,” said Bruce Kuniholm, founding dean of the Sanford School.