Robert I. Toll, L’66, a former University Trustee, an emeritus member of the Carey Law School Board of Advisors, and the co-founder of transformative home construction company Toll Brothers, died on October 7 at home in Manhattan. He was 81. 

Mr. Toll was born in Philadelphia suburb Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, to a father who was involved in Philadelphia real estate and who had successfully rebuilt his career after the Great Depression. Mr. Toll graduated from Cornell University in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, then graduated from Penn’s Law School three years later. He briefly worked at the Philadelphia law firm Wolf, Block, Schorr, and Solis-Cohen, but then founded Toll Brothers with his younger brother Bruce in 1967. To start out, “we built two homes,” Mr. Toll recalled. “Instead of selling them, we used them as samples for the lots we owned down the street.” These sample homes landed the brothers contracts to build 20 more homes, which each sold for $17,500. Robert and Bruce Toll were among the first postwar housing developers to recognize how trends in highway construction would allow access to swaths of farmland for housing and shopping developments. 

Over the next five decades, under Robert Toll’s leadership of the company as chair and CEO, Toll Brothers rapidly grew to become, as the company’s slogan boasts today, “America’s luxury home builder.” The company recognized shifting demographics in the U.S. during the 1970s and targeted baby boomers looking to trade upward. The Toll Brothers blueprint included targeted land purchases, appeals for quick zoning approval, and predesigned houses that allow room for personalized changes by buyers. Boosted by the proliferation of McMansions and the implementation by zoning boards of two-acre lot sizes in many American suburbs, Toll Brothers became a force in the American housing market. Today, over 150,000 American families in 24 states live in a Toll Brothers-built home. Toll Brothers appeared on the Fortune 500 list, and Robert Toll spearheaded several philanthropic initiatives, including Seeds of Peace, a summer camp in Maine for children from global conflict. His many professional honors included recognition as one of the world’s top 30 CEOs by Barron’s magazine in 2005 and as best CEO in the Homebuilders and Building Products Industry by Institutional Investor magazine in 2008 and 2009. The Wall Street Journal once called Mr. Toll “the best CEO in the housing business.” 

At Penn, Mr. Toll was a heavily involved student and alumnus. During his time as a student, he was active in Penn Hillel. Since then, he has been a leading philanthropist at Penn. In 1990, he and his wife Jane, GED’66, began sponsoring a chapter of Say Yes to Education, a program affiliated with the Graduate School of Education and founded by Emeritus Trustee George Weiss, W’65, HON’14, to provide educational, social, mentoring, and financial support to motivate students to graduate from high school and continue on to college. They promised to fund a college or technical school education for 58 West Philadelphia third graders if they completed high school. An unprecedented number of these children graduated high school and went on to college or technical school thanks to Mr. Toll’s sponsorship.

In 2006, Mr. Toll donated $10 million to Penn to launch the Toll Public Interest Center. Since then, the center has grown into a hub for public service at Penn. Another gift in 2018 launched the Toll Public Service Corps, and in 2020, Mr. and Mrs. Toll made a $50 million donation that dramatically expanded the program, doubling the number of future public interest graduates through a combination of full and partial tuition scholarships. “This gift was the largest gift in history devoted entirely to the training and support of public interest lawyers, and among the ten largest gifts ever to a law school in the United States,” said Trustees chair Scott Bok and Penn President Liz Magill in a tribute to Mr. Toll. “Bob and Jane elected to make this transformative gift at an unprecedented time in history, when lawyers working for a more just and fair system are desperately needed.” 

From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Toll was a member of Penn’s Board of Trustees. He served on the Trustee Facilities & Campus Planning and Neighborhood Initiatives Committees. “We shall fondly remember Bob’s impact on our Penn community and his tremendous dedication to public service,” said Mr. Bok and President Magill. In addition, Mr. Toll was a longtime member of the Board of Advisors of Penn Carey Law School, and he also served as a law class agent, a member of the advisory council of the Biddle Law Library, a guest auctioneer for the Carey Law School’s Equal Justice Foundation Auction, and as a guest lecturer in real estate economics and corporate law. Outside of his work for Toll Brothers and Penn, Mr. Toll was on the boards of the Metropolitan Opera, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, Jefferson Abington Hospital, Seeds of Peace, the Cornell Real Estate Council, Pennsylvania Campaign Choice, the Mayor’s Housing Partnership Council of Philadelphia, and Beth Shalom Synagogue of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Toll is survived by his wife, Jane; his children, Laurie, Deborah, Rachel, L’03, Jacob, and Joshua; and other family members. Contributions in Mr. Toll’s memory may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research online, or by mail at: Michael J. Fox Foundation, C/O Robert I. Toll Tribute Page, P.O. Box 4777, New York, NY 10163-4777.

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