Randolph man donates $2 million to Pa. hospital

RANDOLPH – A township resident who gave $3 million to Morristown Medical Center last year has donated $2 million to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Leonard B. Kahn, a retired farmer and cattleman and longtime township resident, has given the money to support the Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care, a new state-of-the-art outpatient facility currently under construction on the Hospital’s Main Campus in West Philadelphia.

One of the Buerger Center’s most unique lobby characteristics – a one of a kind spiraling lobby ramp – will be known as the “Leonard B. Kahn Walkway” in recognition of Mr. Kahn’s generosity, according to a press release from the hospital.

“The Leonard B. Kahn Walkway represents the boundless and soaring hope of a child,” said Dr. Steven M. Altschuler, chief executive officer of The Children’s Hospital. “Through his thoughtful generosity, Leonard Kahn will enable countless patients and families who visit the Buerger Center to experience hope and healing in a magnificent, uplifting setting.

Currently under construction, the 700,000 square-foot Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care will feature 12 floors of integrated clinical care space and patient, family, and visitor amenities, the release said.

The 82-year-old Kahn, who never married and has no children, donated $3 million to establish the Leonard B. Kahn Head and Neck Cancer Institute at Atlantic Health's Carol G. Simon Cancer Center. Kahn does not have head or neck cancer but is a patient of Dr. James Wong, longtime chairman of the radiation oncology department at Morristown Medical Center and the founder and medical director of the institute.

In an interview with the Daily Record, Kahn said he grew up on his parents' Nutley Dairy Farm and fell in love with the business at a young age. Instead of finishing high school, he helped his father keep the farm going.

Eventually, Kahn established a farm in Morris County and bought more farms, totaling some 500 acres, in New York State. Mostly, he said, he bought and sold cattle though at one point he had a milk bottling plant.

When he’s not at his 40-acre farm in Mount Freedom, Kahn lives in Florida.