HERBERT KURZ

KURZ--Herbert, founder of Presidential Life Insurance Company, Philanthropist, and Humanitarian died Monday, November 24, 2014. Kurz founded Nyack, NY based Presidential Life Insurance Company. He has received high praise for his business success, philanthropic accomplishments, and humanitarian commitment. Presidential candidate and Senator George McGovern, a friend of Herb, has stated: "Herb is a humanistic, Roosevelt-type Democrat and a committed activist on the war and peace front." "He's a person of deep political convictions, but not in a narrow partisan sense. He's what a businessman ought to be." Kurz was honored by President Bill Clinton at the White House Conference on Corporate Citizenship in 1996. Kurz went on to become the founder of the Kurz Family Foundation through which he endowed a chair in constitutional rights in the political science department of Brooklyn College, his alma matter, and established the Frederic Ewen Center at NYU's Tamiment Library. He also supports numerous organizations in Rockland County, NY, the community where Presidential Life is based. Born in Harlem in 1920 to Max and Molly Kurz, he served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was a decorated navigator aboard B-26 bombers for his rescue mission over Greenland. He and his wife Edythe moved to Rockland County, NY in the 1950s. He is survived by his son, Leonard, of Piermont, NY; a daughter, Ellen Kurz of Cambridge, MA, and two grandchildren, Tommy Kurz Cosgrove and Sophie Kurz Cosgrove. A service will be held 10am, Friday, November 28 at Temple Beth Torah, 330 North Highland Avenue, Upper Nyack, NY 10960. Donations in his name can be made to the President's Student Support Fund at Rockland Community College, Suffern, NY and the Center for Safety and Change, New City, NY.