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Before his death on October 24, 2007, Norman Hascoe served as president of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a neoconservative-aligned advocacy outfit that strives to link the security of the United States to that of Israel. Based in Washington, DC, JINSA is perhaps the most powerful Likudnik group in the United States. JINSA advisory board members have included David Steinmann, Anne Bayefsky, John Bolton, Stephen Bryen, Phyllis Kaminsky, Max Kampleman, Jack Kemp, Michael Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, Richard Perle, Kenneth Timmerman, James Woolsey, Dick Cheney, and Douglas Feith.

In an obituary posted on its website, JINSA eulogized: "Norman, during his life, did not seek honors. In fact, he shied away from them and from publicity, though he never dodged responsibility. And honor was his. He preferred to 'do good' from behind the scenes, and he 'did good' extraordinarily well. Most of his work on behalf of mankind, whether in the arts, medicine, or national security, was done silently and passionately. His presidency of JINSA was one of the few occasions on which he stepped in front of the curtain. We were, and we are, honored by that. And those of us who worked with him and loved him will miss him" (October 26, 2007).

In addition to his leadership of JINSA, Hascoe, a financier and engineer, was president and founder of the Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm Hascoe Associates. In 1999, he was worth $750 million and made the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. According to Forbes, Hascoe "started advanced semiconductor materials company with $8,000 in 1957. Sold in 1969, repurchased. Later sold to AlliedSignal in 1983 for $100 million in cash plus stock. Turned around, sold shares at Allied's high. Sons Lloyd and Andrew manage proceeds: real estate, mutual funds, bonds, emerging growth companies" (Forbes, October 11, 1999.)

Hascoe was affiliated with the Hascoe Family Foundation (the major donor listed is Hascoe's wife Suzanne), which has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to JINSA—more than $800,000 from 1999 through 2001 (see FoundationSearch.com). The Hascoe Charitable Foundation (for which Norman served as president) gave Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum $10,000 in 2003 and Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy $35,000 from 2003 to 2004—the same years in which it gave JINSA $546,000 (FoundationSearch.com).

Hascoe was appointed in 2005 by President George W. Bush to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). USHMM's 2005-06 Annual Report listed Hascoe as a donor in the $5,000-$9,999 range.

Hascoe was a benefactor of the arts and sciences, especially in and near Connecticut, where he was based; he heavily supported art museums and scientific and medical institutes. The first talk in the "Norman Hascoe Lectures on the Frontiers of Science" series—funded by Hascoe—at the University of Connecticut's Physics Department was held on November 3, 1997 (Advance, October 27, 1997). The lecture series for undergraduate students, which is open to the public as well, entered its 11th year in 2007. In 1997, the University of Connecticut gave Hascoe an honorary doctorate (see UConn News); he and his wife were also listed in 2006 as part of the University of Connecticut's "Constitution Circle—Lifetime Giving of between $100,000 and $249,000" (Momentum, Summer 2006). Hascoe was also on the NYU Medical Center's board of trustees and an emeritus director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The 2006 Annual Report of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center listed Norman and Suzanne Hascoe as donors in the $1 million-$2.5 million range (MSKCC, AR 2006).

The Hascoes lent some of their private art collection to be on display at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. According to the museum's website: "The Bruce Museum has long been privileged to enjoy the friendship and support of Suzanne and Norman Hascoe. For more than a decade they have sponsored the Hascoe Lecture Series, a very popular program that has attracted scores of distinguished lecturers on a wide variety of art historical topics to Greenwich. In 1999, the Hascoes shared their extensive collection of 20th-century Czech art with Museum visitors."

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.