Quiet funder of arts and ed.

Billionaire financier Thomas H. Lee cultivated a reputation as a prolific philanthropist beloved for his “quiet, generous” presence at universities, museums and Jewish charities, acquaintances told The Post on Friday.

“Tom gave [and] raised millions of dollars for the Intrepid Museum and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund,” said Bill White, the former president of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.

White, who worked with Lee and his wife, Ann Tenenbaum, for several years to raise funds for the museum, called the moneyman a “quiet, generous” contributor who was “always there when called upon.”

“I’d thank him at a meeting, and he’d go, ‘Stop that, that’s not what this is about,’ ” White recalled.

Beyond his work with the Intrepid Museum, Lee’s philanthropic interests extended to higher education, the arts and medicine.

In 1996, two years after his firm made headlines with its immensely lucrative $1.7 billion sale of Snapple to Quaker Oats, he donated $22 million to Harvard University, his alma mater.

At the time, Lee’s gift was the sixth-largest donation in the university’s history, the Harvard Crimson said.

“Lee gave Harvard unprecedented freedom in allocating the donation, classing $19 million of it as unrestricted funds,” The Crimson reported.

Lee also donated to Brandeis University and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, The Boston Globe reported.

Lee was also an honorary trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and, according to the Harvard Gazette, was previously linked to the Museum of Modern Art. Lee and his wife are listed as Leadership Circle donors for James Turrell’s Roden Crater.