Carl J. Shapiro (February 15, 1913 – March 7, 2021) was a Boston-based apparel mogul who built his fortune starting in the 1930s with a successful women's apparel manufacturing business during the Great Depression, later diversifying into real estate developments across the Boston area. One of New England's richest individuals with a net worth in the billions, he was also one of Bernie Madoff's earliest and largest investors, suffering significant losses in the 2008 scandal. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents, Shapiro was a lifelong philanthropist who, with his wife Florence (1917-2000), whom he married in 1941, donated hundreds of millions to Jewish organizations, Brandeis University (naming the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Campus Center), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Israeli institutions. The couple had two children: son Harold T. Shapiro (1941-2020), a former CEO of the family foundation, and daughter Rosalind Shapiro. Shapiro split his time between Newton, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach, Florida.