kapusta,
I heard your second story from a very reliable source (Rav Hershel Wachsman from Monsey) with just slight variations. The man was not a philanthropist but a butcher in Europe. He had consistantly set aside money for tzedaka and after that money had accumulated to a sizable amount he asked the rav of the town what to do with it. The rav told him that there were 2 gifted boys who could become big talmidei chachamim if only there was money available for them to go to yeshiva but their parents couln’t afford it. At that time most bochurim stopped yeshiva around bar mitzvah age and went to work. The few who continued learning beyond that age had to traveling to a yeshiva somewhere else. The butcher used the money to send them off to yeshiva. He remember that one of the bochurim was named kotler but couldn’t remember the name of the second bochur.
Rabbi Wachsman said that he repeated the story to Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky ZTL and Rav Yaakov responded that the story is 100% true. He added that he was the second bochur!