

The Timeless Genius of Kodak’s George Eastman - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2012/01/07/the-timeless-genius-of-kodaks-george-eastman/

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julian37
Great read, thanks for posting this.

The £100m that Eastman donated to charities over the span of his lifetime
translates to roughly US$ 7 billion today, assuming 1926 money (which is when
he made a £800k donation to London hospitals for the poor, according to
Wikipedia.) [1]

Though such conversions should be taken with a large grain of salt, that
definitely puts him in the major league of philanthropy [2]. One amazing dude
indeed.

[1]
[http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/His...](http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-
inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy#Some_Large_Individ...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy#Some_Large_Individual_Bequests)

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pm90
Also, one of his most important (but lesser known) contribution is the funds
that he provided for the construction of the present MIT campus
(source:[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Tech...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology#Development_and_post-
war_growth_.281916.E2.80.931965.29))

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ctdonath
One key; he knew that people, real individuals, took pictures. Kodak's
terminal mistake was forgetting this, coming to believe their customer was
retailers. Retailers, benefitting from the multiple visits customers made to
process just a few dozen pictures, threatened to drop Kodak products if Kodak
moved into digital on a large scale. Ego, Kodak stayed with film and wasn't
ready for the mass migration to digital photography. Kodak chose retailers
over end users ... abandoning Eastman's successful user-focused approach.

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kazoolist
Particularly if you find Eastman's life and accomplishments interesting, I
second the article's suggestion that if you're ever in Rochester, NY you
should stop by the George Eastman House.

