Herbert Silverman Memoriam

Herbert R. Silverman, a prominent figure in the development of commercial finance, died Thursday at his Manhattan home. He was 91.

He made his mark helping finance small businesses seeking to take part in the military procurement programs of World War II. Afterward, as a prime lender, he helped them prosper in the postwar economy.

Mr. Silverman was an innovator in factoring, the practice of lending money to businesses and taking over their accounts receivable. An alternative to dealing with banks, factoring was considered a staid business in the 1930s.

With innovators like Mr. Silverman, factoring became an industry attuned to the changing ways of business. He founded the Centaur Credit Corp., a commercial finance company, which merged in 1945 with James Talcott Inc., one of the oldest factoring firms.

Talcott grew into one of the largest commercial lenders in the world. Mr. Silverman became its executive vice president in 1956 and president in 1958. He was chairman and chief executive from 1961 to 1973 and retired as chairman of the executive committee of Talcott National Corp. in 1975.

Herbert Robert Silverman was born in Brooklyn and graduated from the New York University School of Business with a bachelor ' s degree in 1935. He received a doctorate at St. Lawrence University. He was the founding president of the National Commercial Finance Conference from 1948 to 1952 and then chairman until 1958, and a past president of the National Conference of Commercial Receivable Companies.

He was chairman of the finance committee of Helmsley-Spear Inc. from 1974 until 1990 and was an adjunct professor of finance at the N.Y.U. College of Business and Public Administration.

Mr. Silverman is survived by a son, Henry, of New York, the chairman of the Cendant Corp.; daughter, Karen Mayers, of Washington, D.C.; brother, Saul, of Palm Beach, Fla.; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. His first wife, Roslyn Moskowitz, died in 1965, after 32 years of marriage. In 1967, he married the actress Nadia Gray, who died in 1994.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug. 25, 2003.

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