Edgar B. Stern

Edgar Stern was born in 1886 in New Orleans as the second son of Maurice Stern and Hannah Bloom Stern. His family was Jewish. Maurice had immigrated to New Orleans from Germany in 1871, beginning employment with cotton factors in the city. Maurice Stern succeeded in the cotton trade, and by 1883 his firm of employment bore his name, Lehman, Stern and Company. Maurice married Hannah Bloom in 1883, and his family benefited financially from his success as a cotton merchant. ==Career and philanthropy==

Business and civic affairs Following his 1907 graduation from Harvard University, Stern began his employment with Lehman, Stern and Company in New Orleans in the cotton trade. Stern served as president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange in 1927 and 1928. He also became involved in civic affairs, being elected to the Orleans Parish School Board and the Board of Directors for Charity Hospital of New Orleans in 1912. His involvement in business matters extended beyond cotton trading, and so he was elected president of the New Orleans Association of Commerce in 1915, a forerunner of the local Chamber of Commerce. Stern also became a director of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad in 1916. This organization later evolved into the Bureau of Governmental Research. In 1947 Stern and his family purchased New Orleans radio station WDSU from the Stephens Broadcasting Co. Stern, together with his son Edgar Jr., then opened WDSU-TV one year later, its first broadcast being on December 18, 1948. This television station was the first in Louisiana, the 6th major television station in the South, and one of the first 50 stations in the United States. Author Gerda Weissmann Klein published a list of business and civic positions that Stern held as of 1953. Dillard University Stern's involvement with Dillard University and Flint-Goodridge Hospital began with a solicitation in 1928 by Edwin R. Embree, then president of the Rosenwald Fund, concerning the educational and health care needs of African-Americans in the city of New Orleans. At about the same time, the president of Straight College sought Stern's financial aid for the college. A possible merger of historically black Straight College and New Orleans University was under discussion by leaders of each institution, reasoning that each was fairly weak but the combined universities would be strong. Additionally, the Rosenwald Fund was interested in developing centers for education of African-Americans, believing that New Orleans could be one of those centers if the two institutions merged. Edith Stern's biographer Gerda Weissmann Klein wrote that, while Edgar Stern had no prior convictions about African-American affairs, "he had strong convictions about right and wrong, along with a keen perception of social injustice, the debris of which was all around him". These circumstances led to Stern's immersion in addressing the educational needs of African-Americans. This was initially a $15 million, 1000-home development in the Gentilly section of New Orleans. With a $145,000 grant in 1955, he funded a project by the Governmental Affairs Institute of Washington, DC, a project to compile statistics on elections in the United States. ==Personal life==

In 1921, Stern married Edith Sulzberger (1895-1980) (née Rosenwald), daughter of Sears Roebuck magnate and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. Each of their children were notable in their own rights. Stern gave each of the three children money to begin their own foundations. Son Philip M. Stern (1926–1992) was a Democratic Party activist, philanthropist, and writer. His books included criticisms of the political establishment and the legal profession, and he wrote treatises on poverty. His noted books included "The Best Congress Money can Buy" and "The Oppenheimer Case", among others. He died in 1992 at age 66. First son Edgar Bloom Stern Jr. (1922–2008) served in the US Army's Signal Officer Corps in World War II and in the Korean War. With Edgar Sr, he founded WDSU-TV, the first commercial television station in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Through his Royal Street Corporation, Edgar Jr pursued real estate developments, especially in New Orleans and Aspen, Colorado. He lived in Aspen and on the San Juan Islands from 1968 until his death. For his merits early in his career, Edgar Bloom Stern Sr. was invited to join the exclusive Boston Club of New Orleans, despite its reputation at the time for antisemitism. Stern declined the invitation on learning that close Jewish friends would be unable to join. Stern continued to prosper in New Orleans business circles even though he was excluded from much of the city's society because of the widespread antisemitism of the time. Stern's brother S. Walter Stern was also in the cotton business and was a philanthropist in the city of New Orleans. ==Legacy==

In 1936, Edgar and Edith Stern founded the Stern Family Foundation, ultimately distributing $25 million. Believing that foundations became bureaucratic if they persisted too long, Edgar Stern and Edith Stern chartered the Stern Family Foundation to spend itself out of existence. The spending was complete in 1986. The fund was noted for sometimes supporting unconventional causes. For example, in addition to its support for inner-city causes, it on occasion supported challenges by shareholders to encourage social responsibility of corporations, public-interest law firms, tenant groups, and the anti-nuclear movement. It preceded other foundations in supporting black voter registration in the Deep South. Edgar Stern and his wife Edith Stern built a home in suburban New Orleans, Louisiana, during the period 1939–1942, intending from the start to open the house to the public as an educational institution. The home was built in Classical Revival style. The home was partially opened to the public in 1968 and fully opened as a museum and gardens in 1980. Edgar Stern and wife Edith Stern also maintained a summer home in Lenox, Massachusetts. ==Gallery==

File:SternHouse1947.jpg|1947 Home of Edgar Stern at Longue Vue Gardens File:WDSU logo.jpg|WDSU-TV logo, station founded by Stern File:DillardFrontJan06.jpg|Dillard University File:LouisianaAv7June2006HospitalA.jpg|Flint-Goodridge Hospital Building as it appeared in 2006 File:Atkinson–Stern Tennis Center, New Orleans.jpg|Entrance to the Atkinson - Stern Tennis Center in Uptown New Orleans File:Stern Family Grave in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.jpg|Stern family tomb ==References==