He graduated high school and went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor but World War II interrupted his education and he enlisted in the Army. He apparently started working at age 9 and got his start in retail at age 11 working at Sims department store after school. Taubman grew up in Detroit during the Depression.

He was also a strong supporter of stem cell research. In all, Taubman had given away more than $250 million to charity, including millions to Detroit-area schools.

The school's college of Architecture and Urban Planning bears his name, as does the research institute at the medical school. A University of Michigan dropout, he was the largest donor in the school’s history, having pledged $56 million to the University of Michigan in 2012 on top of $142 million he’d already given.