Read a tribute to Margaret E. Mahoney, president of The Commonwealth Fund from 1980 to 1995. Mahoney passed away on December 22, 2011, after a long illness. She was the first woman to head a major U.S. philanthropic foundation, becoming president of The Commonwealth Fund in 1980. Prior to her leadership of The Commonwealth Fund, she was a senior executive of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and, prior to that, of the Carnegie Corporation. She played a key role in the transition of RWJF from a family foundation to one of the largest U.S. foundations in the 1970s, and revitalized the Fund, which was founded in 1918 and today has assets of $680 million.
