In 2007 Gap founder Donald Fisher offered his enormous con-temporary art collection to the city of San Francisco, proposing to build a 100,000-square-foot museum in the historic Presidio. Featuring more than a thousand major paintings and sculptures by blue-chip artists, including Andy Warhol, ells worth Kelly and Richard Serra, the collection was highly admired and coveted by art experts who had visited Gap’s San Francisco headquarters. But local preservationists were loath to see a boxy modern museum amid the Presidio’s 19th century Army barracks and waged war with Fisher for two long years.

The philanthropist finally surrendered. He withdrew his offer, provoking rumors that his art might go to Oakland, or even St. Paul, Minn. But billionaire investor Charles Schwab had other ideas. A close friend and business associate of Fisher’s, Schwab was also chairman of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “I started having many conversations with Don, to convince him to bring his collection to SFMOMA,” Schwab recalls. The conversations took on greater urgency as Fisher was coping with terminal cancer. A handshake deal was made just days before his death in September 2009.

Nearly seven years later, as a vastly expanded and reimagined SFMOMA—now the largest modern art museum in the u.S.—reopens its doors, Schwab’s intervention is viewed as a masterstroke. “Don trusted Chuck,” says SFMOMA director Neal Benezra. “I’m quite certain that Don’s knowing that Chuck was committed to the Fisher collection and the growth of the museum allowed him to have confidence at the end of his life that his collection would be in great hands at SFMOMA.”