Athletic Development Bear Backer Spotlight
Richard Sandler Counts Cal as a Worthy Cause
By Anton Malko research and the awareness of the disease that has resulted from the Foundation’s work, the death rate from prostate cancer has declined significantly and the treatment options have greatly expanded. To count a man of Sandler’s character as an ally of the California Golden Bears speaks loudly that the Athletic Department’s mission is a worthy one. Head football coach Jeff Tedford called Sandler “a very valuable resource that we are fortunate to have in this department. Richard has a very logical approach to things and for us to be able to call on his knowledge and wisdom is very helpful.” Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Sandler considered local favorite UCLA, as well as Michigan and Cal, among his undergrad options entering his senior year at Birmingham High School. His older brother, Michael, had enrolled at Stanford three years earlier. Why not make it an official sibling rivalry and become a Bear? “We kid around about it,” Sandler said. “It’s a healthy ribbing.” Intense events in the Berkeley area were no joke, however, when Sandler arrived on campus in the fall of 1966. Clamors for social and political change were gaining momentum on the heels of the Free Speech Movement of 1964-65, and every year of Sandler’s undergraduate education was marked by historic clashes, from ROTC recruitment conflicts his freshman year, to protests against the Vietnam War his sophomore year, to rallies for African-American rights his junior year, to outrage over the American presence in Cambodia his senior year. Sandler remained focused as a student, an active member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity and an intramural athlete who competed in football, soccer, basketball and baseball. He was introduced to his future wife, Ellen, by Lowell Milken outside a political science class they all attended in Dwinelle Hall. As Sandler finished his final exams in May of 1969, thousands of National Guardsmen – some Cal students – joined police to
chieving potential with integrity is a big part of the student-athlete experience at Cal. It’s also a defining trait of Richard Sandler ’70. “Richard brings integrity and insight to every aspect of his life, whether it is as a highly successful businessman, as a leader in the Richard and Ellen Sandler met at Cal outside nonprofit world or a Dwinelle Hall. devoted family man,” said Milken Family Foundation chairman and co-founder Lowell Milken ’70, a close friend of Sandler since childhood. “I don’t know if there’s anyone I’ve ever met who has more integrity than Richard,” agreed co-founder Michael Milken ’68. “He’s had an awesome responsibility to represent us in many ways and he has helped change the world.” As the foundation’s executive vice president and a trustee, Sandler has contributed to inspiring initiatives that the Milkens developed in education, along with efforts in healthcare that can justifiably take credit for saving large numbers of lives. His acumen as a lawyer with specialties in business structurings and complex transactions has also made him vital as a chief architect of the complex web that encompasses the foundation’s ambitious undertakings. In the education sector, entities such as the Milken Family Foundation’s National Educator Awards and Teacher Advancement Program ensure that the priceless work of educators is acknowledged in meaningful ways that can support the process and encourage upward-climbing excellence, with the nation’s children the ultimate beneficiaries. In healthcare, the foundation may best be known for contributions to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic source in the battle against a killer that few men formerly received tests to detect. Today, thanks in large part to innovative 24
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