Lewis Rosenstiel


Lewis "Lew" Solon Rosenstiel was the founder of Schenley Industries, an American liquor company, and a philanthropist. The Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award is named after him; the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is named after him and his wife.

Biography

Rosenstiel was born to a Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Elizabeth and Solon Rosenstiel. He attended University School and Franklin Prep. He then went to work at his uncle's business, Susquemac Distilling Company in Milton, Kentucky. Rosenstiel organized Schenley Products Company in the 1920s. The company bought numerous distillers, including one in Schenley, Pennsylvania, that had licenses to produce medicinal whisky. In 1933, when Prohibition ended, Schenley Distillers Company was formed as a publicly owned company. Schenley became one of the largest liquor companies in the United States. It was one of the "Big Four", which dominated liquor sales, and included Seagram, National Distillers, and Hiram Walker. Rosenstiel retired from Schenley in 1968 and it was acquired by Israeli financier Meshulam Riklis. The company was sold to Guinness in 1987.
Rosenstiel was a friend of attorney Roy Cohn, and together they formed the organization American Jewish League Against Communism. Rosenstiel was also friends with Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover, and was the primary contributor to the J. Edgar Hoover Foundation.

Personal life

Rosenstiel was married five times: to Dorothy Heller, Leonore Cohn, Louise Rosenstiel, Susan Kaufman and Blanka Wdowiak. His daughter, Louise, married Sidney Frank, who well after her death in 1973, became a billionaire creating the vodka Grey Goose and through guerilla marketing of the German cordial, Jägermeister. His second wife. Lee, married Walter Annenberg, was on the board of the Metropolitan Opera, and led the influential Annenberg Foundation. His divorce from his fourth wife changed the divorce laws in the U.S.
His first wife, Dorothy Heller, contributed the funds which Rosenstiel used to start Schenley Industries. Rosenstiel's mother's family were Disraelis; when they bought the Johnson trading post in Ohio, they changed their name to Johnson.

Conyers Farm

Rosenstiel had purchased in 1936 the 1,481 acre estate of Edmund C. Converse, the first president of Banker's Trust. Conyers Farm was one of "the great estates of America" larger than Central Park and Prospect park combined. The main house had 52 rooms. It was bought by the paper magnate Peter Brant in 1980 and developed into 95 10-acre sites, sold to celebrities such as Vince McMahon and Ron Howard.