Educated to Give Back: Whitman Parents Support the School’s Mission

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that education is important to Syracuse parents Michael Richman and Ruth Toporoff. Between the two of them, they’ve earned six higher education degrees, including two bachelor's degrees, a master’s degree in finance, two law degrees and a master’s in legal studies.

“I always say Ruth is the most educated person I know,” says Richman of Toporoff, who holds four of those degrees.

Perhaps just as important to them is philanthropy. The couple supports dozens of charitable causes, many of them in education.

So when all of their three children made Syracuse University their college choice, supporting the university just made sense.

“Ruth and I think it’s really important to give back to and invest in the place that we’ve entrusted with our kids’ education,” says Richman. “We take that very seriously.” With a targeted approach to philanthropy, the couple is helping to advance the educational goals of the Whitman School of Management not just for their own kids, but for the future of the school.

Building Careers, Building a Legacy

Toporoff began her career by founding a construction management company that worked on complex construction projects in the New York City subway system. After September 11, 2001 changed the construction business, she turned her attention to raising their daughter and twin sons, though she always harbored an interest in law school. She returned to school to pursue a law degree during the pandemic, graduating with a J.D. in 2022 and a master of laws in animal law in 2025.

Richman began his career in private legal practice before joining the legal team at Goldman Sachs in 1992. In 2008, he moved over to the compliance side and is now a managing director.

The couple’s three children follow in the footsteps of their parents’ backgrounds in business and finance. Toporoff and Richman’s daughter, Logan, ’22, graduated from the Newhouse School and minored in marketing in the Whitman School. She now works in marketing. Although she was not a Whitman major, Richman says the school took a real interest in his daughter. “For all four years of college, they really were very helpful and helped guide my daughter through college,” he says.

Ironically, it was Covid-19 closures that helped bring her younger brothers, twins Hayden, ’28, and Connor, ’28, to the university. As family members of a student, they were able to visit Logan under Covid protocols. At the same time, they were learning remotely at their high school, which gave them flexibility they might not otherwise have had. Logan and her tightknit group of friends took Connor and Hayden under their wings. By the time their sister graduated, they felt at home at Syracuse, chose to enroll, and are now Whitman School students.

“They had a real comfort zone in Syracuse,” Toporoff says of her sons. Toporoff and Richman initially encouraged the twins to strike out on their own at separate universities, but are now happy their sons overrode them and chose Syracuse.

Richman remarks, “All three of them, they love Whitman…They’re excited to go to their classes. As parents, it couldn’t be easier.”

Community Service That Runs in the Family

With their drive and focus, a targeted approach to philanthropy fits Toporoff and Richman as well. “When we donate to schools, we like to have a dedicated project in mind,” says Toporoff.

They are members of the Whitman Leadership Circle and appreciate the tangible results of their giving to initiatives like experiential learning because of the direct impact these programs have on students. As a law student in the 1980s, Richman participated in an experiential learning program at a time when such opportunities were relatively rare. He says the hands-on experience he got serving indigent clients shaped his career and has influenced his giving to Whitman.

Richman and Toporoff also speak proudly of their children’s interest in community service, like the sports program for disabled athletes where their sons volunteered during high school. Toporoff, an avid equestrian, shares an interest in animal rights with her daughter.

“I feel very good about the fact that it’s something that my kids are very conscious of and has rubbed off on them in a real positive way,” says Richman, recounting the bonds that grew between his sons and the children they coached in the sports league.

Richman also serves on the Whitman Parents Council, a group of parents of current students that provides advice and input on the areas of career readiness and job placement, student experience, and philanthropy and community building. He appreciates the opportunity to promote the Whitman experience and weigh in on how to help students achieve.

And while Richman and Toporoff speak of their offspring’s loyalty to the school, it’s clear they feel it, too. At one point, Toporoff comments on the couple’s multifaceted engagement in the university and the Whitman School, “despite that we’re not alumni.” Without missing a beat, Richman responds, “I feel like I am.”

By Suzi Morales