13 Facts About Robert Lehman

1.

Robert Lehman was born to a Jewish family in New York City.

2.

Robert Lehman was the son of Philip Lehman and grandson of Emanuel Lehman, a cofounder of Lehman Brothers investment bank, and Carrie Lauer.

3.

Robert Lehman graduated from Hotchkiss School in 1908 and was a 1913 graduate of Yale University and member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

4.

When his father retired in 1925, "Bobbie" Robert Lehman assumed the leadership role of the family-owned business.

5.

Robert Lehman took over the bank during a time when Lehman Brothers, like its competitors Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, was essentially a one-office firm.

6.

Robert Lehman understood that to maximize Lehman Brothers' growth he needed additional investor capital.

7.

Robert Lehman understood too that the right partners could expand the company's opportunities through interlocking directorships.

8.

And, when Lehman put together start-up financing for Paramount Pictures, John D Hertz would be their connection on Paramount's board.

9.

Robert Lehman guided his company through the perils of the stock-market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression of the 1930s.

10.

Robert Lehman was a thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder who had five horses compete in the Kentucky Derby.

11.

For six decades, Robert Lehman built upon an art collection that his father began at their 7 West 54th Street house in 1911.

12.

Robert Lehman devoted a great deal of time and energy as a long-time member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and finally becoming the first chairman of the board at the Metropolitan in the 1960s.

13.

Robert Lehman died August 9,1969 and is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.