Jeffrey Alfred Legum, who owned automobile dealerships and was a donor to numerous Baltimore charitable institutions, died of heart failure Sept. 25 at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 83.
“Jeff was a man of unsurpassed generosity,” said former U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes. “He valued friends and family in a way we should all emulate. His appetite for life was infectious. When you were around him, you thought things were going to be all right.”
Mr. Legum was the former CEO of the Park Circle Motor Company, Legum Chevrolet Nissan and the Westminster Motor Company. He was also chair of the Legum Foundation and CEO of Park Circle Co., DBA Park Circle Investments.
“Jeffrey was a remarkable man,” said Dr. Justin Charles McArthur, director of the Johns Hopkins Department of Neurology. “He had a dedication to advancing scientific discovery. He financially supported a number of people in different positions at Johns Hopkins. He also paid to recruit other scientists here.”
“He was aware of the need of academia to grow,” said Dr. McArthur. “He was also man who was really on top of science and what was new.”
Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Naomi Hendler Legum and Leslie Legum. He was a Park School graduate and earned a degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
He met his future wife, Harriet Legum, on a double date at the Rive Gauche restaurant in Washington, D.C.
Herbert Mittenthal, a friend for nearly 70 years, said, “Once you were Jeff’s friend, you were a friend for life. He made Park Circle Chevrolet quite a powerhouse too. He was excellent at expanding his business.”
Mr. Legum and his wife endowed the Legum Professorship in Neurological Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Mr. Legum was a trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine and served its finance committee for many years. He was a lay member of the Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research.
“Jeff Legum was brilliant with money,” said Stiles T. Colwill, former Baltimore Museum of Art board chair and friend of 40 years. “He had a dry sense of humor and could tell a story. At a long-winded board meeting, he could cut through the verbiage and come up with the right plan. He put his money where his mouth was and quietly said, ‘I’ll take care of that.’”
He helped build the endowments of both the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Park School, where he chaired the Investment Committee from 1982 to 1997 and saw the value of the endowment more than double.
He was a long-time BMA trustee and assisted the institution in weathering the 2008 financial crisis.
In 2021 Mr. Legum providedfunds to the museum so it could increase the minimum wage for their lowest paid employees. The increase affected over 50 people and resulted in the minimum wage being raised to $15 per hour.
“He advocated for the museum staff in a very strong way,” said James D. Thornton, BMA chair of board of trustees. “He himself was a collector and was the consummate trustee who was involved in all aspects of the museum.”
Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Harriet Cohn Legum; a daughter, Laurie Legum, of Baltimore; a son, Michael Legum, of Los Angeles; his brother, Douglas Legum, of Bethesda; and a grandson.
Services were held Sunday.
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