Helen Edison Lecture Series

Helen Edison was a San Diego philanthropist with a great love for the arts and humanities. She spent much of her life in St. Louis with her husband, Simon, who founded the successful Edison Shoe chain.

Following the fire that destroyed the treasured Old Globe Theatre, Helen stepped forward to make a leadership gift in honor of her husband. This gift, by stock, was, at the time, the single largest gift ever made to a local institution.

Again, in 1994, Helen made another tremendous gift to support The Old Globe's gift shop that now bears her name. In addition, Helen was a supporter of UC San Diego and other worthwhile arts organizations.

Realizing the value of endowed giving, Helen endowed UC San Diego's Helen Edison Lecture Series, which hosts noted speakers from all fields of the humanities to share their thoughts with the university and wider community.

Helen Edison loved to entertain, bringing friends together around a piano or a dinner table. It is no surprise, then, that her largest gifts were made to a treasured theater and a lecture series, two forums that bring the public together for an entertaining and enlightening evening.