Local News
(2002-10-24)
CLEVELAND
(WCPN) -
Cleveland billionaire and sportsman Al Lerner is being remembered as the man who saved the Browns. Lerner died last night at the age of 69. The cause of his death has not been revealed. Lerner put up $520-million to bring the new Browns to Cleveland when Art Modell took the team to Baltimore. That cost was the price tag of a new NFL franchise. Then Lerner spent millions more to staff the team and improve a stadium built primarily with public funds. The business world will remember him as a one-time furniture salesman who built the nation's largest credit card company, MBNA, and made himself a billionaire in the process. MBNA employs an estimated 20,000 people. Lerner was 36th on the Forbes list of richest Americans. He's also being remembered as a "great guiding force" at the Cleveland Clinic. Those are the words of Dr. Eric Topol, who'll be academic provost of the joint Cleveland Clinic-Case Western Medical School that a $100-million gift from Lerner is helping to create. Topol says the Lerner donation will help steer more medical students into research careers they currently can't afford to pursue. Topol says those students who opt for research will be able to have their student loans forgiven. The new medical school will accept its first students in the summer of 2004. © Copyright 2012, WCPN
