Samuel Oschin, a business leader and philanthropist
The following text is adopted from the obituary of Mr. Oschin, c/o 
jewishjournal.com, with an additional input from Mrs. Lynda Oschin

An entrepreneur since the age of 10, Samuel Oschin lived a productive life with a mind for community. He started out his business ventures working as a chimneysweeper. Before he had even finished elementary school, he had hired friends and transformed this small task into a growing enterprise.

Continuing his natural air for success, he used his cunning instinct and savvy to later excel as a painter, manufacturer and commercial and residential real estate developer. At the age of 23, he used his remarkable drive and competitive pricing to outbid General Electric and Chrysler Corporation for a major government contract. Oschin combined his entrepreneurial skill and community compassion to design low-income housing with the Housing and Urban Development Agency, helping thousands of families in Los Angeles. An adventurer, Oschin trekked through the Amazon, placed a U.S. flag on the North Pole and even reenacted Hannibal’s epic 100-mile elephant ride through the Alps.

Oschin had a deep and varied compassion for philanthropy. He founded the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation in 1981, which helped to provide scholarships for disabled minority students at UCLA and Stanford University, a children's playroom at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and ongoing support to countless others, including recently the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Mr. and Mrs. Oschin made a generous donation to Palomar Observatory, and the 48-inch telescope was renamed in his honor.

His wife, Lynda Oschin, continues his tradition of giving to the community, through the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation, including the recently named Samuel Oschin Planetarium at the Griffith Observatory.