Bernard Emmanuel Spitzer (April 26, 1924 – November 1, 2014) was an American

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

Early life and education

Spitzer was born to Molly and Morris Spitzer, Jewish Austrian immigrants"Bernard Spitzer, father of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, dies at 90 - The real estate investor and philanthropist had been battling Parkinson's disease, according to a spokesman" by Annie Karni
''New York Daily News'', November 2, 2014. from Tulste,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

(now

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

) to New York's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. They operated a print shop. Bernard received an engineering degree from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1943 at the age of 18. He earned a degree in engineering from

Columbia University School of Engineering The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (popularly known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; previously known as Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University. It was founded as th ...

in 1947. Spitzer initially tried his hand at civil engineering shortly after his graduation from Columbia but turned instead to real estate development (under Spitzer Engineering). Spitzer was based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

where he operated apartment buildings and built several landmark buildings around the city including The Corinthian, which was the largest individual apartment building in New York City when it was built.

Real estate developer

Among the buildings Spitzer has built are: * 1020 Park Avenue (1962), a 20-story co-op apartment at East

85th Street 85th Street is a westbound-running street, running from East End Avenue to Riverside Drive in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. At Fifth Avenue, the street feeds into the 86th Street transverse, which runs east–west through Central P ...

and Park Avenue * 1050 Fifth Avenue (1958), a 20-story residential building at East 86th Street and Fifth Avenue *

200 Central Park South 200 Central Park South is a Modern-style building on the south side of Central Park in New York City, at the corner of 7th Avenue and Central Park South ( 59th Street). It is most notable for its curving facade, banded by balconies. Its exterior ...

(1963), a 35-story residential building at Seventh Avenue and Central Park that is noted for its curved walls and a driveway that angles across the front of the building (other buildings along Central Park South are square)Bernard Spitzer - Emporis.com
/ref> * 210 Central Park South (1966), a 24-story residential building next door to 200 Central Park South * 985 Fifth Avenue (1968), a 25-story residential building on the site of now demolished the Isaac Vail Brokaw Mansion *220

East 72nd Street 72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in New York City's borough of Manhattan. The street primarily runs through the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods. It is one of the few streets to go through Cen ...

(1974), a 28-story mixed-use residential-institutional building—the first five of which are occupied by

Marymount Manhattan College Marymount Manhattan College is a private college on the Upper East Side of New York City. As of 2020, enrollment consists of 1,571 undergraduates with women making up 80.1% and men 19.9% of student enrollment. The college was founded in 1936. Hi ...

(where Anne taught) *

800 Fifth Avenue 800 Fifth Avenue is a skyscraper in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. It was constructed from 1979 to 1981 and has 42 floors. It is the tenth-tallest building in Seattle and was designed by 3D/International. The building has been able t ...

(1978), a 34-story rental apartment building at 61st Street *

The Corinthian (New York) The Corinthian is a 57-story apartment building that was New York City's largest apartment building when it opened in 1988. Background The building is located on the former site of the East Side Airline Terminal, a passenger terminal that provi ...

(1988), 57-story building occupying an entire block between 37th and 38th on First Avenue *

150 East 57th Street Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album) ...

(2000), a 34-story residential building His New York buildings are leased by his subsidiary

Urbana Properties __NOTOC__ Urbana can refer to: Places Italy *Urbana, Italy United States *Urbana, Illinois **Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois *Urbana, Indiana *Urbana, Iowa *Urbana, Kansas *Urbana, Maryland *Urbana, Mi ...

, created in 2005. In addition, Spitzer purchased several prominent commercial properties over the years, including: USA-NYC-The Crown Building

730 Fifth Avenue The Crown Building is a historic 26-story, 416 foot mixed-use skyscraper at the southwest corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The lower levels contain retail space, while the upper leve ...

(The Crown Building or Heckscher Building), New York City, a two-floor neo-classical office building completed in 1921 by Warren & Wetmore and acquired in 1991 for $95 million. *

2001 K Street 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

(William P. Rogers Building), NW, Washington, D.C., 11-floor commercial and retail building completed in 2000 for $69 million and acquired in 2001 for $95 million. *

1615 L Street Events January–June * January 1 – The New Netherland Company is granted a three-year monopoly in North American trade, between the 40th and 45th parallels. * February – Sir Thomas Roe sets out to become the first ...

, NW, Washington, D.C., 13-floor post-modern glass curtain wall commercial building completed in 1984 and acquired in 2009 for $180 million. *

4800 Hampden Lane 48 may refer to: * 48 (number) * one of the years 48 BC, AD 48, 1948, 2048 * ''48'' (novel) * 48'' (magazine) * "48", a song by Tyler, the Creator from the album ''Wolf'' * 48, a phone network brand of Three Ireland * "Forty Eight", a song by ...

(One Bethesda Center), Bethesda, Maryland, 13-floor commercial and retail complex completed in 1986 and acquired in 2011 for $90 million. * 350 West Broadway, New York, NY, 11,000 sf, two-story, retail property acquired in 2013.

Philanthropy

*Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

*Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in Political Science at the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

*Anne and Bernard Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of City University of New York *The Spitzer Family Program Fund for U.S. Health Policy at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Controversies

In 2007, Governor

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008. Spitzer was b ...

(son of Bernard) appointed Dale Hemmerdinger president of the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

. Before being confirmed for that position, Hemmerdinger had to resign from the all-white, mostly Jewish

Harmonie Club The Harmonie Club is a private social club in New York City. Founded in 1852, the club is the second oldest social club in New York. It is located at 4 East 60th Street, in a building designed by Stanford White. History Originally named the ...

. It was then revealed that Bernard had been a member of the club for more than 30 years. Also in August 2007, Republican strategist

Roger Stone Roger Jason Stone (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American conservative political consultant and lobbyist. Since the 1970s, Stone has worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Rea ...

was accused of leaving this message on Bernard's office answering machine during the "Troopergate" scandal in which his son Eliot was accused of using state troopers to spy on

Majority Leader of the New York State Senate The Majority leader of the New York State Senate is elected by the majority of the members of the New York State Senate. The position usually coincides with the title of temporary president of the State Senate, who presides over the session of th ...

Joseph Bruno Joseph Louis Bruno (April 8, 1929 – October 6, 2020) was an American businessman and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from upstate New York. Bruno served in the New York State Senate from 1977 to 2008 and was Senate Majo ...

: "This is a message for Bernard Spitzer. You will be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate committee on investigations on your shady campaign loans. You will be compelled by the Senate sergeant at arms. If you resist this subpoena, you will be arrested and brought to Albany. And there's not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece-of-shit son can do about it. Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you. You will be forced to tell the truth. And the fact that your son's a pathological liar will be known to all." Stone initially denied involvement but eventually resigned as a consultant to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, at the request of Joseph Bruno.

Personal life and death

He was married to Anne Goldhaber whom he courted in the

Catskills The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...

. They had three children: daughter Emily Spitzer (born 1955), a lawyer, Daniel Spitzer (born 1957), a neurosurgeon, and

(born 1959), former New York Governor. According to biographers, during a game of

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

between father and son, the elder Spitzer would order his seven- or eight-year-old son, Eliot, to sell him a piece of property, which, later in the game, the future governor could not afford. In this way the father taught his son: "Never defer to authority." To support Eliot's foray into politics, Bernard made a loan to his son of $5 million during the first two campaigns and paid him $200,000 per year. As of 2006, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust had donated at least $140,000 to organizations led by political allies. Bernard Spitzer died on November 1, 2014, from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

at the age of 90.Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (November 4, 2014)
"Bernard Spitzer, New York Developer and Philanthropist Dies at 90"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. As of 2008, he had an estimated net worth of $500 million.. ''Forbes''. Associated Press. March 12, 2008. He left each of his three children $50 million and donated $250 million to the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable trust.

Bibliography

Paterson, David David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 55th governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out nearly three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to December 2010. A ...

"Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity."Skyhorse Publishing. New York, New York, 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spitzer, Bernard 1924 births 2014 deaths American civil engineers American construction businesspeople American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American real estate businesspeople Businesspeople from New York City City College of New York alumni Eliot Spitzer Jewish American philanthropists Engineers from New York City Philanthropists from New York (state) Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni