JEREMY WIESEN

WIESEN--Jeremy Lester, 80, of New York City, New York, passed away on Sunday, July 24, 2022, suddenly and quickly, near his cherished apartment in West Palm Beach, FL. Jeremy lived an extraordinary life; he was a larger-than-life figure to all who knew him. He was known for his great love of family -- all the Wiesens, Leffs, Pragers, Millers, Siegels; his infectious laugh and sharp sartorial style; his brilliant and inquisitive mind; being forever positive, kind and complimentary to others; and always, always extremely funny -- when he wasn't reading the New York Times front to back and dreaming up pragmatic solutions to the world's problems. Born February 27, 1942, to Irving and Tobie-Antoinette Wiesen, nee Mnuchin, in New York City, Jeremy was raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and educated at Columbia Grammar (now Columbia Prep). At the age of 17 he was accepted as an undergraduate to the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania; earned a JD from Harvard Law School; shortly thereafter worked as a lawyer at the SEC, and was hired as the youngest professor at that time ever to teach at Wharton. Jeremy also taught at Columbia, Stanford, the University of Manchester, England, and for 35 years was a tenured professor of Business Law and Entrepreneurship (his true passion) at NYU's Stern School of Business. In the 1970s he co- authored textbooks on Accounting and Business Law that were widely used in university business programs well into the '80s. In 1981 Jeremy took a sabbatical from NYU to become the interim CEO of Financial News Network (FNN), which later became the basis of what is now CNBC. In 1982, he was approached by David Mintz, the creator of Tofutti -- the first non-dairy ice cream of its kind -- to grow the idea into a nationally distributed product, which he did, to great success. Jeremy eventually took the company public as its CEO. In the 1990s he taught entrepreneurship seminars in Hong Kong, Cyprus, Israel, Indonesia, and Australia. In 2000, Jeremy founded the Global Goals Institute, devoted to proposing entrepreneurial solutions to global problems like poverty and hunger. He wrote many Op-Ed pieces in his life, which were published in The Palm Beach Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The East Hampton Star, and others. He had a deep-rooted belief in the powers of science, biotech and social entrepreneurship to save and extend human life. Jeremy was a lifelong golfer; a passionate fan of film and theater, and for many years sat on the board of the East Hampton Film Festival and regularly attended the New York Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. In the 1980s he financed a low budget independent film; in the 2000s he produced a stage reading of his favorite play, David Mamet's Oleanna, at East Hampton's Guild Hall, with Wallace Shawn. Jeremy introduced his son Gavin at an early age to the art of cinema, influencing his son's career path in movies. Jeremy loved his son deeply and was immensely proud of his work as a filmmaker. He was a devoted and highly engaged member of the Maidstone Club in East Hampton, the Beach Club in Palm Beach, and until he moved to Florida, the Harmonie Club in Manhattan. He loved the South of France and traveled there many times in his life. For 15 years he and his longtime partner Cynthia Witter shared an award-winning black Cocker Spaniel, Daphne Simone, who they both dearly loved, and around whom Jeremy created a series of stories and videos about a talking dog who espoused his own views on the need for more empathy in the world. Jeremy is survived by his son Gavin; Cynthia Witter; his ex-wife and friend of 50 years Belinda Brackenridge; his half-sister Barbara Prager; his beloved nieces Emily Prager and Karen Balliet; his closest cousin and friend Henry Siegel, and many, many other lifelong and newer friends too numerous to mention. Jeremy made friends everywhere he went; he lived every day with gratitude for what he had; his hours spilled over with an endless cascade of laughter and ideas, both creative and altruistic.