During the Depression there was always someone more in need than we were, and my mother was constantly raising money for some cause. I remember as a kid rolling an awful lot of pennies. Today, after a long and successful career as a pioneer in the field of satellite communications, Sid Topol lives on Boston's Commonwealth Avenue. But his boyhood attachment to the inner city remains intact, and he often plays golf in Franklin Park. It's a friendly place.
People feel comfortable there.
That's how it should be. Through a fund at the Boston Foundation, Sid supports several major arts, educational, and health care institutions. He gives to public television because he spent much of his life building the technological infrastructure of television. And he supports programs that help bring people together. I want to help build bridges between people.