Career
Westheimer, an American businessman, banker and philanthropist from Ohio, began the Big Brothers movement on July 4, 1903, when he discovered a young boy rummaging through a garbage pail outside the rear entrance to his office. Westheimer befriended the boy, who had no father, and began to urge his close friends to get involved as "big brothers" with other young boys from fatherless homes. In 1908, Mistress Cornelius Vanderbilt learned of the Big Brothers movement and organized the first "Big Sisters" program in New York City.
The two organizations came together in 1977, and merged to become known as the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America.