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OBITUARIESAlfred Lerner '55: Businessman, Philanthropist, Student Center Benefactor The College presented Lerner with the John Jay Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement in 1986 and the Alexander Hamilton Medal, its highest honor, in 1997. He was a vice chairman of the University Board of Trustees, vice chair of the executive committee, chair of the health sciences committee and a member emeritus of the College’s Board of Visitors. Born on May 8, 1933, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Lerner was the only child of Russian immigrants. The family lived in three rooms behind its candy store and sandwich shop, which was only closed three days a year — on the Jewish high holy days. He graduated from Brooklyn Tech in 1951, and, after graduating from the College, he served as a Marine Corps pilot from 1955–57, achieving the rank of first lieutenant. He then worked as a furniture salesman, earning $75 a week, first in New York, then in Baltimore and Cleveland. Lerner was chairman and chief executive of the MBNA Corp., the second-largest issuer of credit cards in the world after Citibank. MBNA began in 1982 as a subsidiary of MNC Financial, a state bank in Baltimore. Lerner became a major shareholder in MNC Financial in 1990. Within a few months, the bank began to flounder under the burden of failed real estate loans, and Lerner stepped in as chief executive. He took the bank’s most successful unit, MBNA, public in 1991, investing $100 million of his own money to ensure the success of the initial sale of stock. He also was chairman of Town and Country Trust, a Baltimore-based real estate investment trust that owns and operates more than 15,000 apartment units in the mid-Atlantic region. Lerner rose to become a billionaire investor in banking and real estate, but is best known to those outside the Columbia community for his revival of one of sport’s best-known names as owner of pro football’s Cleveland Browns expansion franchise. In September 1998, he won the bidding to bring pro football back to Cleveland when he paid $530 million — a record at the time for a professional sports franchise — to buy the newly forming Browns, who began play in the National Football League the following year. In fact, Lerner’s death came four years to the day that the NFL formally transferred ownership of the Browns to him. He subsequently became an important figure among NFL owners as chairman of the league’s finance committee. Lerner had been a minority owner of the old Cleveland Browns when their principal owner, Art Modell, moved them to Baltimore before the 1996 season. On October 1, 1998, Lerner and his wife, Norma, attended a gala opening ceremony for Alfred Lerner Hall, which succeeded Ferris Booth Hall as Columbia’s student center at 115th Street and Broadway. The architecturally striking building, designed by Bernard Tschumi, dean of the School of Architecture, is more than twice the size of its predecessor. Lerner was philanthropic in other ways, as well. In addition to his generous gifts to Columbia, he and his wife donated $100 million in July to the Cleveland Clinic, where he was treated during his illness. He also created the Cleveland Browns Hero Fund, which provides financial aid to survivors of rescuers killed in the World Trade Center attack, and gave $10 million, on behalf of his wife, to University Hospitals of Cleveland to help build a new hospital wing. Lerner also was president of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which oversees the renowned medical complex. His gift of $16 million to the clinic led to the 1999 opening of the Lerner Research Institute. In 2001, President Bush appointed Lerner to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which comprises 15 distinguished citizens who provide advice to the president concerning the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, analysis and estimates of counterintelligence activities. Lerner was a trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital and Case Western Reserve University. Among his many honors, in addition to the Alexander Hamilton Medal and John Jay Award, were the NAACP Freedom Award and the Horatio Alger Award. Said President Lee C. Bollinger in his remembrance of Lerner: “Al will be remembered for his analytical mind, unpretentious manner and as someone to whom everyone listened. His knowledge of finance, healthcare and education issues was a tremendous asset to Columbia, as was his keen understanding of technology and our pressing need for space. His ability to comprehend complex, multi-faceted information and distill it into its essence was a gift to us all. “Al loved being a trustee and played a very critical role for us. Although he had innumerable commitments, he would always arrange his schedule to be in New York for trustee meetings and important Columbia events. His clear grasp of institutional strategies and needs will be sorely missed.” Among the Columbians at Lerner’s funeral in Ohio were Dean Austin Quigley; Susan Feagin, vice president of development; Board of Trustees Chair David Stern; and Jim Berick ’55, a long-time business associate of Lerner’s. In his eulogy, Berick spoke of how much Columbia meant to Lerner and how deeply he valued the education he received on Morningside Heights. The November 15 issue of the Columbia Record quoted Lerner as saying: “I love helping people. It vindicates what I have been working for all these years. I have always wanted to leave a legacy in the field of medicine, where I can have some contribution in both furthering and developing new research along with helping sick people to get better treatment. This is what I hope my legacy is going to be, not that I made a bunch of money.” Lerner is survived by his wife, Norma; son, Randolph ’84 ’87L; daughter, Nancy; and seven grandchildren. A.S., L.P.
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Alfred
Lerner ’55, businessman, football team owner, philanthropist
and principal benefactor of Columbia’s new student center,
Alfred Lerner Hall, died of brain cancer on October 23. Lerner,
who lived in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, was 69.
