William Ruane knew a thing or two about investing. A $10,000 initial investment in the Sequoia Fund that he co-founded in 1970 would be worth more than $4 million today. Under his cooperative management, the Sequoia Fund became one of the most consistently high-performing investment funds on Wall Street. But in terms of enduring investment value, perhaps Mr. Ruane’s largest community-development venture was the Carmel Hill Fund, a private foundation he established in 1986 to support social service, mental health, and education initiatives.
