Bert Wolstein
| Bert Wolstein | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Bertram Leonard Wolstein February 23, 1927 East Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | May 17, 2004 (aged 79) Mayfield Heights, Ohio, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Real estate developer, sports team owner, philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | Iris Shur Wolstein |
| Children | Cheryl, Scott |
Bertram Leonard Wolstein (February 23, 1927 — May 17, 2004), known to his friends as Bart and publicly as Bert Wolstein, was an American real estate developer, sports team owner, and philanthropist based in Cleveland, Ohio. He founded Developers Diversified Realty Corporation, which at the time of his death was the fourth-largest developer of shopping centers in the United States. In 1979, he purchased the Cleveland Force Major Indoor Soccer League team, and attempted to purchase the Cleveland Browns in 1998. He retired from active business in 1997, and became one of the most generous donors in the United States in his final years.
Bertram Leonard Wolstein was born on February 23, 1927, in East Cleveland, Ohio, to Joseph and Sarah (née Lipson) Wolstein. He had an older sister, Malvene. Both his parents were immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father had been born in Minsk, and emigrated to the United States in 1903. Fluent in Yiddish, he was an actor in Yiddish theater for 15 years before taking a job as a fabric cutter for Printz Bierderman Co. and later Keller Kohn Co. His mother was also born in Minsk, and emigrated to the United States in 1904. She worked in clerical jobs for the General Accounting Office and for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
The Wolsteins lived in a very small home with another family in East Cleveland. When Bert was 12 years old, they moved into a duplex in adjacent Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The family was poor, and the onset of the Great Depression worsened their financial condition. Wolstein went to work at a young age, and held down a series of jobs while attending local public school: Selling copies of the Cleveland Press newspaper, stocking shelves and working as a cashier at his aunt's store, working as a soda jerk at various local drugstores, selling hot dogs and soft drinks at League Park (a baseball stadium in Cleveland), cleaning home furnaces, shoveling snow from driveways, and selling Christmas trees. He was enterprising, and once made money by selling cold soft drinks from his toy wagon to construction workers building new homes across the street from where he lived. The hard work did not leave him embittered. Even as a boy and young teenager, Wolstein saw hardship as a means of gaining valuable work experienced. The Depression left a profound impact on him. "Iris and I never forgot where we came from," Wolstein said in 2003. "We were Depression babies, and no matter how much we have or the rare experiences we have encountered along the way, our roots will always be in Cleveland's old Jewish working class neighborhood, Tuscora Road."
...
Wikipedia