By Emily Telesco
December 26th marked the 13th anniversary of the death of Robert Macauley. Macauley, a former New Canaan resident, spent his life helping others – most significantly through founding Americares – which has provided billions of dollars to people in crisis situations around the world. Prior to that, Macauley was responsible for the rescuing of hundreds of Vietnamese war orphans in 1975.
Macauley was born on December 11, 1923 in Manhattan but raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. He attended Greenwich Country Day School and Andover in his youth and then Yale as a young man, where his roommate was George H.W. Bush. While at Yale, he interrupted his education to volunteer for service in World War II, serving in the Air Transport Command in North Africa. Upon returning to Connecticut, he graduated magna cum laude from Yale and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. Afterward, he went on to work for his family’s paper company Virginia Fibre. In 1965, he married the love of his life, Alma Jane “Leila”, with whom he would spend the rest of his life.
Before founding Americares, Macauley was already helping people around the globe. In 1975, towards the end of the Vietnam War, more than 2,000 South Vietnamese children were evacuated to the United States in a rescue mission called “Operation Babylift.” At the beginning of this evacuation, a cargo plane carrying hundreds of orphans tragically crashed in Saigon, killing nearly half of those on board. Upon learning that it would take more than ten days to get the resources to rescue the survivors, Macauley took action immediately. He and his wife Leila heroically mortgaged their New Canaan home to get enough money to charter a Boeing 747 from Pan American (Pan Am) World Airways to Saigon and successfully rescued the remaining survivors. In 1981, Macauley provided humanitarian aid to Poland at the order of Pope John Paul II and organized an airlift to provide Lebanese Civil War victims with medicine. It’s selfless actions like these that Robert Macauley is most remembered for.
In 1982, Macauley founded Americares – a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to providing aid and health services to people around the world affected by poverty, disease, or civil war. The impact that Americares had on the world was instantly significant. In 1985 he rebuilt African-American churches bombed in the South. In 1989, with the help of Mother Teresa, Macauley was able to ship millions of pounds of food and medicine to keep the people of Nairobi alive during a famine. Along the way, his wife Leila was always there with him, sharing his passion for philanthropy and doing good in the world. In fact, she also led an organization called “The Friends of Children” which supports programs for children in poverty.
Today, Americares’ impact is just as important, and they are continuing to develop their services. Each year, they distribute one billion dollars of medicine and supplies to an average of 85 countries and support more than 4,000 health centers in the United States and around the world. Americares provides health clinics regarding maternal and child health, as well as mental health programs for people who have experienced trauma.
Throughout his life, Mr. Macauley went out of his way to help those in need. As a result, he won numerous awards, such as the President’s Volunteer Action Award from Ronald Reagan in 1984 and the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award in 1997. And he continued to devote his life to philanthropy – helping people around the world – until his passing at age 87 on December 26, 2010 in his home in Florida.
Macauley left behind a legacy of selflessness and unwavering generosity, and the effects of his life achievements can still be seen today through Americares – which continues to provide health and crisis aid to people worldwide. Per Barbara Bush (wife of his former Yale roommate George H.W. Bush) in the book “His Name is Today” by Bill Halamandaris “Bob has learned the secret of life, and he has shared the secret with the rest of us…He knew that all of us wanted to help but didn’t know how, so he showed us.”
