Jay Furman (July 15, 1942 – January 4, 2015) was a developer and owner of real estate located in thirty-nine

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

s and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. He had significant interests in more than 150

shopping centers A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

, office buildings,

hotels A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

and industrial/storage facilities. Furman served as the president of RD Management LLC and oversaw the operations of all of its affiliates.

Biography

Furman 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, the son of real estate developer Morris Furman. He has one sister, Barbara Furman Murray. Furman graduated from Harvard University. He also has a Masters in economics from Columbia University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. After school he worked for the family company, eventually assuming control. He developed or acquired over 125 properties during the period from 1993 through mid-2006, and at the time of his death had over 20 properties under development. Furman was on the board of governors of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wi ...

and a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

(Chairman of the Real Estate Committee),

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...

(Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee), UJA (Chairman of the Real Estate Committee), Educational Alliance, Jewish Home & Hospital of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Child Study Center at the

Medical Center. Furman oversaw the development and construction of Furman Hall, a $100 million facility, which doubled the academic capacity of the law school. Furman Hall was completed ahead of schedule with considerable construction budget savings realized. Furman also was on the board of directors of the Great Neck Arts Center and was instrumental in creating and programming their "Cinematheque Independent Filmmakers" series, which he endowed from 1997 onward; was the founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the

Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is a joint center at New York University School of Law and the NYU Wagner School of Public Service. The Furman Center was established in 1995 to create a place where people interested in affordab ...

, and founder of the Furman Academic Scholarship at the

and was on the National Advisory Board of Futures for Children. He was one of the investors in the Broadway production of

The Wedding Singer ''The Wedding Singer'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and Christine Taylor, and tells t ...

Personal life

His first wife was Gail Gorman; they had two children: economist

Jason Furman Jason Furman (born August 18, 1970) is an American economist and professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. On June 10, 2013, Furman was named ...

and federal judge Jesse Furman. They later divorced. Furman died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

on January 4, 2015, at the age of 72. He was survived by his two sons and a stepson, Eric, from his second marriage to Victoria (née Moran) Furman. Services were held at the Central Synagogue in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furman, Jay 1942 births 2015 deaths American real estate businesspeople 20th-century American Jews Columbia University alumni Real estate and property developers New York University School of Law alumni Harvard University alumni 21st-century American Jews