First-class recreation centers in low-income neighborhoods — dozens of them, scattered around the nation
. That was the vision of Joan Kroc, billionaire philanthropist and heiress to the McDonald’s fortune of her husband, Ray. When she died in 2003, Joan Kroc stunned the Salvation Army when she left what amounted to $1.8 billion — roughly half her fortune —with instructions to carry out her wish for the centers. In today’s dollars, that is $2.9 billion.
” By the time the grand 195,000-square-foot facility in five San Diego buildings opened to the public in 2002, it featured a National Hockey League-regulation ice rink, three pools, sports fields, a library, a climbing wall, and a 540-seat theater. The price tag to construct and endow operations at the center: $93 million. Not long after, Kroc, then 74, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, and she and her small staff of advisers revved into action to prepare her final wishes.
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