Uris was born to a
Jewish family, the son of Sadie (née Copland) and Harris Uris, founder of an ornamental
ironwork factory. After earning a
civil engineering degree from
Cornell University in 1925, Harold joined his brother,
Percy, who had a 1920 business degree from
Columbia University, and their father in developing residential real estate. After WWII, the brothers focused on commercial development, with Harold handling the construction and Percy the financial aspects. In 1960, they created Uris Buildings Corp. as a real estate investment company. One of the last buildings the brothers built together was the
Uris Building housing the
Uris Theater. Soon after Percy's death in 1971, Harold sold the corporation to
Kinney National Company for $115 million, Earlier in 1962, the old University Library building was renamed Uris Library. In 1998, the Uris Brothers Foundation was dissolved after donating all its remaining assets: $10 million to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, $10 million to the
Central Park Conservancy, $3 million to the
New York Public Library, $3 million to
Thirteen/WNET, $2.5 million to
Carnegie Hall, and $1.5 million to the
New School for Social Research. In 1983, Uris donated $10 million to establish the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center of Education at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. ==Personal life==