About the O

The newly-constructed building of The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 925 Camp Street, is named for Stephen F. Goldring. Born in Pensacola, Florida and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Goldring was a New Orleans beverage magnate and philanthropist. Because New Orleans was the hometown of his wife, Mathilde, he made the city his home.

Working with his father, Newman Goldring, and his longtime business partner, Malcolm Woldenberg, Stephen Goldring built Magnolia Marketing Company into one of the top 10 alcoholic-beverage distributors in the United States.

During the last 20 years of his life, Goldring devoted much of his energy to philanthropy through the Goldring Family Foundation. He also succeeded Woldenberg as Director of the Woldenberg Foundation, which his partner had established. Among the examples of Goldring's generosity in the New Orleans region are Tulane's Goldring/Woldenberg Hall which houses the university's business school; Woldenberg Riverfront Park in the New Orleans' French Quarter, and the Ogden Museum's Stephen Goldring Hall. He was also a benefactor of the University of New Orleans, Jewish Federation of New Orleans, World Jewish Congress, the New Orleans Jewish Community Center, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, the Audubon Nature Institute, Touro Infirmary and Temple Sinai. His philanthropic efforts have also been realized in Florida and Israel.

Goldring died in 1997 at 88 years of age.