Ford, Carnegie, Mellon and Rockefeller are respectable enough names in the realms of foundations, but in the minds of most people concerned with prehistoric preservation, city planning and the quality of life in New York City, they don't hold a candle to Kaplan.

Like many of their contemporaries, both Dorothy Whitney and Willard Straight had, when younger, tried to change the world they knew, and they both succeeded within limits.

Clara Woolie Mayer (1895-1988) is possibly the most important forgotten figure in New School administrative history.

Dorothy Payne Whitney was born in 1887, the youngest child of Flora Payne and William C. Whitney. By the age of 17, her mother, stepmother, and her father had all died, leaving Dorothy with an enormous inheritance and a sense of urgency to make her life have meaning.

Alvin Saunders Johnson (December 18, 1874 – June 7, 1971) was an American economist and a co-founder and first director of The New School.