Margaret E. Mahoney papers

Margaret Ellerbe Mahoney was best known as a philanthropist, executive of many non-profit organizations, civic leader, and trustee of Smith College. The papers primarily document Margaret Mahoney's philanthropic work with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, UNESCO, and her consulting firm specializing in health care delivery systems, MEM Associates, Inc. The papers also document Margaret Mahoney’s personal life, mainly through correspondence.

Margaret Ellerbe Mahoney was born in Nashville, Tennessee on October 24, 1924. Her parents, Charles Hallam Mahoney and Leslie Nelson (Nell) Savage Mahoney, had a brief marriage that ended in divorce in May 1925. Leslie Mahoney received full custody of Margaret. Charles Mahoney would later marry a woman named Elizabeth Wood. Charles Mahoney’s family did not recognize Margaret’s existence, and Margaret had no contact with them until a cousin, Joan Cooper, wrote her, months before Charles’s death on August 20, 1988.

Margaret’s mother, Leslie Mahoney, was an interior design expert and received a Master of Arts in history for her thesis titled “The Building of the Tennessee State House, 1845-1854.” Many of Margaret’s other relatives worked as doctors at Vanderbilt University. Her maternal grandfather, Dr. Giles C. Savage, and aunt, Dr. Kate Eastman Savage Zerfoss, shared an ophthalmology practice in Nashville, Tennessee, at what was then known as the Savage House. The Savage House was one of only two Nashville townhouses to survive the Civil War and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Dr. Kate Zerfoss advocated for the addition of white lines to the edges of roads as a safety measure.

Margaret Mahoney attended Ward Belmont and West End High School, graduating from the latter in 1942. She attended Vanderbilt University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations with dual minors in history and art in 1946. Her college years were interrupted by wartime service. She briefly served on a classified assignment with the Army Signal Corps in Arlington, Virginia in 1944.

After her graduation from Vanderbilt, she returned to Washington, D.C. area to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Relations Staff at the Department of State, arriving in time for the First Session of the General Conference of UNESCO. She began as a clerk-typist and rose to become a program officer for cultural affairs. Her positions at UNESCO sent her traveling to Mexico and Lebanon, among other places. She initiated and organized the International Theatre Institute, the International Association of the Plastic Arts, and the International Music Council.

She continued her interest in arts programming after she left UNESCO in 1953 for the Carnegie Corporation in New York City. The Carnegie Corporation introduced her to grant-making, which she continued with for the rest of her professional career. Toward the end of Margaret Mahoney’s tenure at Carnegie, she transitioned away from arts-focused philanthropy and instead into the realm of healthcare philanthropy.

In 1972, she accepted the position of vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), where she was able to continue working on grants focused on improving quality and access to healthcare. From 1975-1979, during her tenure at RWJF, she was on the faculty of the Princeton University Program in Science and Human Affairs. She taught a course titled “Medicine in Modern America” at Princeton University.

In 1980, she moved back to New York City full-time in order to become president of the Commonwealth Fund, making her the first woman to head a major American foundation. She serves as president of the Commonwealth Fund from 1980-1984.

Margaret Mahoney founded MEM Associates, Inc., a not-for-profit consulting firm specializing in health care delivery systems. The MEM Associates, inc. organization was headquartered in New York City in 1995. A major initiative of MEM Associates, Inc. was the Healthy Steps for Young Children Program. This program sought to improve the care and education for children ages 0-3. MEM Associates, Inc. also advised other non-profit organizations on developing fundable initiatives to advance the health and well-being of the American public.

Margaret Mahoney served on a variety of boards and educational foundations including the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Medical Assistance Advisory Council; the Task Force on Medicaid and Related Programs; the Health Industry Advisory Committee of the Cost of Living Council; the Dermatology Foundation; the Sun Valley Forum on National Health; the National Humanities Center; and the Smith College Board of Trustees (1988-93). A copy of Margaret Mahoney's professional chronology can be found in the control file.

Margaret Mahoney received many awards and honors for her professional dedication between 1970 -2011, including numerous honorary degrees and the Lahey Award from the National Fund for Medical Education. After years of failing health, Margaret Mahoney died in New York City on December 22, 2011.