Buck

US philanthropist and US pathologist, husband and wife Beryl (Elizabeth) H (Hamilton)Buck (1896-1975) and Leonard W Buck (1891-1953). She formed the Leonard and Beryl Buck Foundation Trust, its funds reserved for Marin County's needy and various charitable purposes. The Marin Community Foundation now administers the trust, valued at more than $500 million, for Marin County residents.

She was born in Minnesota and he was born in Vacaville, California. The two met at Roosevelt Hospital in Oakland where she was training to be a nurse and he a doctor. They married a year later (1914). They inherited a fortune from oil with the death of Leonard's parents and built an estate in Ross (Marin County) (1931). Leonard taught at the University of California at San Francisco (1928-51). Leonard died suddenly, leaving all his estate to Beryl. Their oil stock was bought by Shell Oil, increasing the trust's value to $253-million.