Lee Peter Gelber (February 8, 1938 – January 19, 2020) was an American tour guide and urban historian whose primary expertise was

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and its environs.

Early life

Gelber was born in

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where he was raised in the Fordham neighborhood by his parents Max Gelber and Rebecca Spiegel. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

, where he majored in history. He initially worked as a toy industry executive before going into the tour business following the occasion of the firm that he was working for having been subsumed by a larger entity in a merger.

Professional career

With an earlier tenure as a Big Apple Greeter under his belt, he became a tour guide for Gray Line in 1994. His breadth of knowledge and tour guide finesse soon led him to become a trainer of other guides for Grayline and then a subsequent series of other outfits. Therein he was popularly known as the so-called (New York City) "Dean of Guides" and was referred to as such in reflective attribution by among other publications the ''

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'' and 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 d ...

''. He was a Co-President of The Guides Association of New York City (GANYC) (with Carol Ann Seidelman), an organization which honored him in March 2016 with their inaugural "Guiding Spirit Award" at the second annual apple awards. in 1993, while still a toy executive, Gelber was a contestant on the seniors edition of the American game show ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'' and finished second on the episode in which he appeared with a total of $10,400. Prior to his retirement in 2018, Gelber operated his own tour guide outfit, "Here is New York Tours", while also continuing to work with other firms. On January 19, 2020 Gelber died in

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, from complications after having suffered a series of strokes. He was 81.

References

External links

* Lee Gelber interview GANYC podcast �

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelber, Lee 1938 births 2020 deaths DeWitt Clinton High School alumni Historians of New York City Jeopardy! contestants Military personnel from New York City Queens College, City University of New York alumni Tour guides United States Army reservists Writers from the Bronx