Robert C. Macauley, who founded the Stamford-based AmeriCares to provide disaster relief and improve health in developing nations, died Dec. 26 at his home in Florida. He was 87.
Since its launch in 1982, AmeriCares has delivered more than $10 billion in medicines, medical supplies and humanitarian aid. Bob Macauley was CEO through 2002 and remained chairman until his death.
Born in New York City on Dec. 11, 1923, in New York City, Macauley attended Greenwich Country Day School, Andover, and Yale University, interrupting his studies to serve in the Air Transport Command in North Africa during World War II.
A longtime paper industry executive, Macauley founded the Shoeshine Boys Foundation in 1968 to support Vietnamese children orphaned by the war. In 1975, as Saigon was falling, he mortgaged his New Canaan home to charter the first jet of what became known as Operation Babylift, rescuing hundreds of orphaned Vietnamese babies who had been injured when a prior chartered jet had crashed.
After founding the New York City nonprofit Covenant House in 1977, Macauley met Pope John Paul II, who asked him if he could do something to help Poland, which was in desperate need of medical supplies. He raised $1.5 million in aid for Poland, ultimately coordinating nearly 40 airlifts to the country ”“ and so AmeriCares was born.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Alexander Soule
