Frank Altschul (April 21, 1887 – May 29, 1981) was an American financier at

General American Investors Company The General American Investors Company, Inc. () is a closed-end fund that manages a global portfolio of investments, consisting mainly of United States securities, and also some international and private securities. History The General American I ...

,Krebs, Albin (May 30, 1981)
New York Times: "Frank Altschul, A Banker and Noted Philanthropist."
''

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 d ...

''. and founder of the Overbrook Management Corporation.

Early life

Altschul was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family"Wall Street People: True Stories of the Great Barons of Finance" By Charles D. Ellis, James R. Vertin
/ref> in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, the son of Camilla (née Mandlebaum) and Charles Altschul. His father had immigrated to the United States from London in 1877 and was the eighth employee of the San Francisco bank

Lazard Freres Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's ...

. In 1901, the Altschul family moved to New York City.Columbia University: "Frank Altschul Papers, 1884-1986 [Bulk: 1925-1980]"
retrieved July 31, 2015 In 1908, Altschul graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Career

He joined

in 1908 and served in France as an Army captain during World War I. In 1916, his father retired as partner at Lazard and Altschul took his place in the firm as one of five partners. In the 1920s, he was awarded the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

by the government of France after giving successful advice on how to stabilize the French franc. In the 1930s, he was part of the committee that governs the New York Stock Exchange before moving on to work with the

Chase National Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Trade name, doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the retail banking, consumer and commercial bank, commercial banking subsidiar ...

. In 1934, he established Overbrook Press which specialized in illustrated, limited edition books for collectors. In 1943, Altschul began working with Lazard Freres as a senior partner. Later he moved on again to

, and maintained his position as an executive until his retirement in 1961. He founded the private

family office A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with at least $50-$100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer w ...

, Overbrook Management Corporation, to manage and protect the wealth and financial well-being of the Altschul Family. In 2002, the office opened its doors to provide asset management and related services to institutional investors and high net worth individuals. Over the years, Overbrook's leadership passed to his son,

Arthur Altschul Arthur Goodhart Altschul (April 6, 1920 – March 17, 2002) was an American banker and a Goldman Sachs Group partner,Overbrook website.
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Philanthropy

In 1924, Altschul co-founded the Yale Library Associates, which was responsible for overseeing Yale libraries. Between 1961 and 1964, he also made financial contributions to various colleges and universities to establish professorships, including his alma mater

and

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

. Altschul served as director of the English-Speaking Union, vice president of the

Woodrow Wilson Foundation The Woodrow Wilson Foundation was an educational non-profit created in 1921, organized under the laws of New York, for the "perpetuation of Wilson's ideals" via periodic grants to worthy groups and individuals. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the chai ...

, and as vice president and secretary of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

Personal life

He was married to Helen Lehman Goodhart, granddaughter of

Mayer Lehman Mayer Lehman (January 9, 1830 – June 21, 1897) was a German-born American businessman, banker, and philanthropist. He was one of the three founding brothers of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Early life Mayer Lehman was born in 1830 to ...

, niece of

Herbert H. Lehman Herbert Henry Lehman (March 28, 1878 – December 5, 1963) was an American Democratic Party politician from New York. He served from 1933 until 1942 as the 45th governor of New York and represented New York State in the U.S. Senate from 194 ...

, former United States Senator and Governor of New York (who his sister Edith married), and sister to

Arthur Lehman Goodhart Arthur Lehman Goodhart (1 March 1891 in New York City – 10 November 1978 in Oxford) was an American-born academic jurist and lawyer; he was Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, 1931–51, when he was also a Fellow of Un ...

. They had three children: Margaret Lang (married to journalist Daniel Lang), Edith Graham, and Arthur G. Altschul. Altschul was a registered Republican who served twice as a Connecticut delegate to his party's national conventions; although he supported

Adlai Stevenson II Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was twice the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I, the 23rd vice president of ...

in his 1952 Presidential race against

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altschul, Frank 1887 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American people of German-Jewish descent Lehman family American people of English descent