Walter N. Rothschild, Jr.

Biographical Information
Walter N. Rothschild Jr., (died in 2003) "After spending nine years as president of Abraham & Straus, Mr. Rothschild's decision to leave the corporate world in 1969 surprised his colleagues and generated a front-page story in The New York Times.

"Mr. Rothschild, the great-grandson of a founder of Abraham & Straus, Abraham Abraham, represented the fourth generation of his family to serve as the company's president... Mr. Rothschild became chairman of the New York Urban Coalition from 1970 to 1973, then served as chairman of the National Urban Coalition from 1973 to 1977. He also sat on the state commission that investigated the Attica prison riots.

"He was instrumental in the 1979 merger of St. Luke's Hospital and the Roosevelt Hospital Center and served as the combined entity's chairman from 1981 to 1987. He also served two terms on the Harvard University Board of Overseers. Born to Walter N. Rothschild and Carola Warburg Rothschild in 1920, Mr. Rothschild graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1942 before enlisting in the Army in World War II.

"Besides his son, of New Milford, Conn., Mr. Rothschild is survived by his wife, Virginia, of Syosset, N.Y.; three daughters, Nina Rothschild-Utne of Minneapolis, Suzanne, of Arlington, Mass., and Jane, of Sydney, Australia; two sisters, Carol Noyes of Syosset and Phyllis Farley of Manhattan; and 10 grandchildren."