Alan Hassenfeld, former executive of Hasbro Games and major Jewish philanthropist who was a mainstay of the Rhode Island Jewish community, died on Tuesday at age 76. 

Born in 1948 to Sylvia and Merrill Hassenfeld in Providence, R.I., Hassenfeld was part of a generational chain in both Hasbro and his community. The last member of the toy company’s founding family to sit on Hasbro’s board, Hassenfeld also carried the torch of his family’s philanthropic giving to causes supporting children, higher education and the Jewish community. 

Hassenfeld’s philanthropic contributions cemented him as a community pillar in Rhode Island’s Jewish community, where he served as honorary director of the Jewish Alliance of Rhode Island. He was described by those who knew him as creative, passionate and a child at heart — fitting of an executive at the helm of one of the world’s leading toy manufacturers.

“He was raised in a toy company. And so that sort of joy and wonder that you have as a child? He never really lost that,” Adam Greenman, CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Rhode Island, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “I think that joy and wonder led to the way that he thought about helping others, and almost made it more simple. If people needed help, he wanted to be able to provide it.”

Hassenfeld and his brother, Stephen, were the third generation of Hassenfelds involved in Hasbro, the company founded in 1923 by their grandfather Henry and two great uncles, who immigrated from Poland. Hassenfeld graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 1970, joining the family business shortly after. After his brother’s death in 1989, Hassenfeld succeeded him as Hasbro’s chief executive officer from 1989 to 2003, and chairman until 2005. Until last year he acted as chairman emeritus. 

A 1990 profile in Family Business Magazine described Hassenfeld as taking a disciplined but creative approach to the business, leveraging his sensitivity and people skills to steer the company in bold directions.  

“The tradition which was handed down from my grandfather and his brothers to my father and his brother and to Steve and I was understanding that our most important asset is our people,” he said in an interview in Leaders Magazine. “As much as we’re known for our toys, toys don’t come without great ideation and innovation and that comes from your people.” 

Just as the toy company was passed down through the Hassenfeld family, so too was the value of giving back to the community. Four years before Alan was born, the Hassenfeld Family Foundation was established in 1944. Throughout his life, Hassenfeld carried on the mission of the foundation, creating nonprofit Hassenfeld Family Initiatives in 2008, focused specifically on causes for children and women. Through the Hasbro Charitable Trust, Hassenfeld gave the founding gift to create Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Rhode Island in 1994. 

“When Rhode Island was in need of a children’s hospital, he almost single-handedly stood up and made sure that one was built. We have Hasbro’s Children’s Hospital today, because of Alan,” said Greenman. “It’s just such a loss for Rhode Island. I’m really going to miss my friend, and I think that there’s a lot of folks here in Rhode Island that are really going to miss their friend Alan.” 

According to Greenman, beyond Hassenfeld’s commitment to children’s causes, he valued giving back to the Jewish community and Israel. 

“It really was at the forefront of who he was,” Greenman said. “His work with the Jerusalem Foundation and Israel spoke to his real understanding and feeling about Jewish philanthropy worldwide: that we’re all part of one community. While his philanthropic pursuits went far beyond the Jewish community, the Jewish community always held a special place for him and was really a key part of who he was.”

Hassenfeld also gave heavily to both Brandeis University and Brown University, serving on the board of both schools, and made smaller donations to other universities. In 2014, he donated $2.5 million to Brandeis to create the Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center. In 2015, he donated $12.5 million to found the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University to strengthen the field of children’s health. 

With a 20-year stint on the board of The Jerusalem Foundation, Hassenfeld followed in the footsteps of his mother, who served as the board’s vice chair for several years. According to Joy Levitt, CEO of the Jerusalem Foundation, when Hassenfeld heard that someone on the board was grieving, celebrating or going through a life transition, they could expect a check-in or a personalized letter from him, often including poem and song recommendations. 

“He was very playful and funny and, at the same time, deeply committed to the work,” Levitt told eJP. “This was a board that he held together for 20 years through thick and thin, through many wars in Israel and many disruptions and all kinds of challenges. Everybody, next to their loyalty toward Jerusalem, had a loyalty toward Alan.”

A donation from Hassenfeld established the Teddy Fountain in Teddy Kollek Park — a favored play space for the city’s children in the summer. According to Levitt, the fountain, along with Hassenfeld’s giving to youth centers in East Jerusalem, were part of his vision for coexistence in Jerusalem.  

“When you go to Teddy Park, you see Arab kids, you see Haredi kids, you see secular kids. You see everybody’s just playing in the water. That was Alan’s vision for a city in which all people had a chance,” Levitt told eJP. “He and his family just believed in that. Believed that we have a responsibility, to make it possible for everybody in Jerusalem to wake up hopeful. He loved Jerusalem, but he also loved children.”