Robert Arthur Bernhard (March 14, 1928 – July 4, 2019) was an American banker best known as the last

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1850. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merril ...

descendant to serve as partner of the firm.

Life and career

Bernhard was born in 1928 to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the son of Richard Jaques Bernhard and Dorothy Lehman Bernhard.Rosenberg, Jennife
Jewish Women's Archive: "Dorothy Lehman Bernhard (1903 – 1969)"
Retrieved January 28, 2017 He graduated from

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

in 1951 and the

Harvard School of Business Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which publishes business books, leadership ...

in 1953. Bernhard joined Lehman Brothers in 1953, and became General Partner in 1962. At Lehman Brothers, Bernhard was Head of Investment Management Division and served on the Boards of the Lehman Corporation and the One William Street Fund. Bernhard left Lehman Brothers in 1972, becoming a partner at Salomon Brothers in 1974 until its merger with Phibro in 1981. In 1981, he opened his own firm, Bernhard & Associates. In 1990 it merged with Orson Munn & Company to create Munn, Bernhard & Associates (MB Investment Partners). In 1997 he became a partner of McFarland Dewey & Company. Bernhard is a Life Trustee of Temple Emanu-El in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York City, after having previously served as its president. He also serves on the boards of the

Montefiore Medical Center Montefiore Einstein Medical Center is an academic medical center that is the primary teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City. Its main campus, the Henry and Lucy Moses Division, is in the Norwo ...

and its

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

and is a Trustee of the

Lincoln Center Institute Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

. He was a Director of Medscape LLC and, from 1993 to 2011, of Stone Energy Corporation.

Cooper Union

Bernhard was chairman of the board of

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

from 1995 to 2004 and served on the board of trustees from 1975 until 2016. He was responsible for choosing George Campbell Jr. as successor to

John Jay Iselin John Jay Iselin (December 8, 1933 – May 6, 2008) was an American magazine and television journalist, editor, and publisher. He served as president of WNET, president of the Cooper Union, and president of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia Univer ...

as president of the school. His service also coincided with the

Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests The Cooper Union financial crisis and tuition protests constitute the events surrounding Cooper Union's announcement that they would begin charging tuition after being a tuition-free school for most of its history. The possible mismanagement of ...

. A friend of

Jerry Speyer Jerry I. Speyer (born June 23, 1940) is an American real estate developer. He is one of two founding partners of the New York real estate company Tishman Speyer, which controls Rockefeller Center. Speyer was featured in the Forbes 400 list in 2021 ...

, Bernhard was involved in the

Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famou ...

bid to take over management of the

Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is a , Art Deco skyscraper in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, it is the tallest brick building in the world wit ...

, the land under which is Cooper Union's biggest asset, by agreeing to Tishman's proposal for a new lease for the building.

Personal life

In 1949, he married Frances Wells; they had 4 children: Adele, Michael, Susan, Steven. In 1970, he married Joan Mack Sommerfield. He died in Greenwich, Connecticut on July 4, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernhard, Robert A. 1928 births 2019 deaths Jewish American bankers American chief executives of financial services companies American corporate directors American financial traders Businesspeople from New York City Businesspeople from New York (state) American chief operating officers Lehman Brothers people Cooper Union American bankers Harvard Business School alumni Williams College alumni Lehman family