Leonard A. Lauder, who helped construct his Jewish household’s enterprise right into a beauty empire and a big driver of philanthropy, Jewish and in any other case, died at his house in Manhattan on June 14 on the age of 92.
As president of The Estée Lauder Firms from 1972 to 1995 and as CEO from 1982 by way of 1999, he “was the driving drive behind The Estée Lauder Firms’ worldwide enlargement,” the corporate mentioned in a press release saying his dying.
Leonard Lauder would draw on that success to turn into a significant patron of the humanities, at one level donating a group of work to the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York valued at greater than $1 billion. In the meantime, his youthful brother Ronald would faucet the household fortune to turn into a drive in Jewish philanthropy, chairing the World Jewish Congress and, by way of the Ronald S. Lauder Basis, supporting Jewish life in Japanese Europe in its pivotal transition within the post-Soviet period.
“Leonard was a beautiful brother and a faithful husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, colleague, and good friend. However his legacy extends far past being the center of our household,” Ronald Lauder mentioned in a press release. “His influence might be felt for generations to come back because of his tireless philanthropy, advocacy, and creativity in tackling a number of the world’s best challenges. The variety of lives he touched and positively impacted throughout all his endeavors is immeasurable. His ardour and generosity have impressed us all, and there aren’t any phrases to specific how a lot he might be missed.”
The household’s journey was a outstanding rise from their middle-class upbringing: Their mom Estée, the Queens-born daughter of Jewish immigrants, helped flip a modest household enterprise right into a juggernaut of magnificence merchandise and perfumes. Born in 1933 (Ronald was born in 1944), Leonard was a graduate of the Bronx Excessive Faculty of Science and the College of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Faculty. He served as a lieutenant within the U.S. Navy earlier than formally becoming a member of Estée Lauder in 1958.
“For greater than six a long time, Mr. Lauder was a visionary and an innovator, serving to remodel the enterprise from a handful of merchandise offered underneath a single model in U.S. shops to the multi-brand, international chief in status magnificence that it’s in the present day,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
Lauder was a long-time advocate of most cancers analysis and served as honorary chairman of the board of administrators on the Breast Most cancers Analysis Basis, the group his late spouse, Evelyn H. Lauder, based in 1993. She died in 2011.
In 2015, Lauder married Judy Glickman Lauder, a photographer whose work contains portraits of Danish rescuers and the Jewish survivors they helped save in the course of the Holocaust.
Lauder is survived by his spouse; his sons William and Gary; 5 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, many stepchildren and step grandchildren, in addition to his brother. Their mom died in 2004.
For more information, go to JTA.org.