William Davidson, 86, Philanthropist and Pistons Owner
William Davidson, a businessman and Jewish philanthropist for whom the Jewish Theological Seminary’s graduate school of education is named, died Friday, March 13.
Davidson, 86, was the owner of three professional sports teams, including the Detroit Pistons, a National Basketball Association franchise. According to a statement released by the Pistons, Davidson died at his Bloomfield Hills, Mich., home, with his family at his side.
“He was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of man; he was a giant, and he was someone who set the example so high, but he was also so humble,” said Rabbi Joseph Krakoff of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Mich., where Davidson was a lifelong member and served as president from 1977 to 1979. Krakoff estimated that Davidson’s funeral, held March 17 at Shaarey Zedek, drew a crowd of 1,500.
Among his many contributions was a $75 million donation in 2007 to support an in-patient facility at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Davidson also established the Davidson Institute of Science Education at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, to advance science education.
In 1974, he pursued his passion for sports, becoming the majority owner of the Pistons. He went on to purchase the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning and the WNBA’s Detroit Shock.
“He’s been a great owner who genuinely cared for players, coaches and employees,” Pistons coach Michael Curry wrote in a statement. “He will not only be remembered as a great owner but also as a person who made a difference in many people’s lives.”
Davidson was chairman and CEO of Guardian Industries Corp., which manufactures glass products for the construction and automotive industries. Under his leadership, the company grew into the largest glass manufacturer in the world, according to its Web site.
In 2008, Davidson was ranked number 62 on Forbes’s list of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated worth of more than $5.5 billion.
Davidson was born December 5, 1922, in Detroit. He ran track at the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1947; he received a law degree in 1949 from Wayne State University. In September 2008, Davidson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.