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Page 4 The Southern Israelite Colonel Michael Friedsam Passes Leading Merchant, Civic Worker, Art Collector, Adviser of Governors and Presidents, Was Little Known by General Public By ROBERT STONE The death of Col. Michael Friedsam, President of B. Altman and Company, and one of the most picturesque figures in present-day Amer ica, removes a personality whose influence in business, civic affairs, and art institu tions will become known fully only years later. While a Jew, the Colonel was in terested in Jewish affairs in so far as they came within his wide range of interests in all worthwhile causes, particu larly in the cultural field. A business man of the first water, a sensitive connoisseur of art, an economist and sociologist of genuine merit, an au thority on civic questions and educational problems who often acted as adviser to Governors and Presidents, a generous philanthropist, Col. Michael Friedsam, who died at New York the other day, was one of the most retiring and modest personalities in America. As head of B. Altman & Company, one of the most exclusive of New York department stores, lie was, willy-nilly, recognized as one of the merchant princes of America’s me tropolis; yet he succeeded, with his usual efficiency, in avoiding all publicity that might have placed him in the glare of the public spotlight. When Colonel Friedsam passed away and editors became busy with gathering material for the elaborate obituary which a man of his calibre de served they realized that their file on Colonel Friedsam was an almost empty folder and that the biographic data at their command were disappointingly mea gre. It was impossible, for example, to determine definitely the age of the de ceased. Neither Who’s Who nor the public relations department of the Altman organization could supply the figures. It had been an outstanding characteristic of the Colonel to keep strictly to himself all matters relating to his personal life. His age concerned him alone, he told the editors of a Who’s Who when they grew insistent on the point of getting the date of his birth. “I’m trying to forget it myself," he added, smiling; and that end ed the research work on this point. According to the calculations of one of his best friends, Mr. Frederick Cody, one may state with reasonable safety that Colonel Friedsam was born a little more than seventy years ago at New York, of German Jewish stock, the son of Morris ’ and Barbara Friedsam. From his child hood on he gave evidence of a determi nation to shape his own destiny, and after finishing public school asked his parents to send him to the Weston Military Acad emy, at Weston, Conn. In one of the rare moods when he would talk about himself lie once explained to a friend that the Military Academy attracted him because of his great respect for discipline and physical training. "These two quali ties, discipline and health, are the sound est basis for a useful life,” he remarked on another occasion. Almost the entire business career of Michael Friedsam is identified with the We Mourn The late Col. Michael Friedsam, whose death removed from the Ameri can scene a business man of high calibre, an economist of genuine merit, and a civic leader of national repute. growth of B. Altman & Company. When, as a graduate of the Weston Military Academy, he entered the store of B. Alt man as a minor clerk, it was a retail dry goods store of rather limited fame. When he assumed the presidency of the concern eighteen years ago, B. Altman and Company was looked upon as one of the most important retail mer chandising institutions in the country. The story of Friedsam’s steady climb to the presidency of B. Altman and Company—a story of which he never spoke—is one of those business rom ances one reads about in the careers of the great figures of industry at the turn of the century. His was a con stant rise from one position to another, his executive and organizing abilities leaving their imprint on every depart ment, his human qualities building a loyal and devoted staff, his exquisite and versatile taste making Altman’s, gradually, into one of the most ex clusive retail buying centers on this continent. While his active interest in the store continued almost to his death —he was at his executive desk only a few days before he died suddenly—his love for artistic beauty in almost any form made him one of the world’s best-known figures in art circles. About ten years ago lie built a costly art gallery in his home at 44 Hast Sixty- Eighth Street, New York, adding con tinuously to his collection, which con tains many of the immortal painters of the Dutch, French, and Flemish art schools. Collecting art treasures was more than a hobby with Colonel Fried sam. In the last twenty years of his life it was perhaps his most vital in terest. It is this contrast and range of in terests that is most fascinating in the personality of Colonel Michael Fried sam. His was almost a dual person ality. On the one hand the efficiently strict business man, stern disciplinarian, ruthless organizer, sober and unerring merchandising genius. On the other hand Friedsam the dreamer, the art collector who spent huge sums on pic tures, whose greatest pleasure was to wander alone moments in his and the nation’s life when the stern merchand iser and art-loving dreamer plunged wholeheartedly into public activities— avoiding, however, the publicized side. Thus, during the world war, he held the position of Quartermaster-General in the New York State National Guard, organizing and carrying out plans for meatless, wheatless, and heatless days for the state in order to husband the resources of the American people. A few years after the close of the war he accepted, from President Harding, a commission to make a special study of commercial and economic conditions in Europe. So well did the quiet and self-ef facing Colonel acquit himself of these various missions that from then on he was in constant demand for special work of one kind or another in vari ous departments of the state of fed eral administrations. All these special tasks Colonel Friedman carried out cheerfully, giving of himself and his time without thought of remuneration or of compensation in honor. As a matter of fact, he made it a condition sine qua non that no publicity be given out about his public missions. Public education as a basis for the improvement of general living tions, attracted him above all. (, Smith, who had come to appr< i idealistic and wise personality Fifth Avenue merchant, in 1925, him at the head of a committee t study the best methods of financing schools in cities and rural districts and the sources of revenue for this ;-i In the spring of 1927 the Dick k the result of the Friedsam Committee's work, was signed, providing almoo seventeen million dollars of additiot state aid to New York schools In addition to his other geiurou philanthropic interests he, more than any other individual, was respmisil for the revived interest and expansu of the Art Department of New York University. The French government made him a commander in the Legi«>i of Honor because of the many service he rendered in fostering Franco Ameri can friendship as well as for his structive interest in French art. Should there come forward a bi ographer who will evince interest ii recreating the gifted, modest, somewhat imperious personality of Michael 1 ri sam, he will find himself taxed to the utmost to collect even the most ele mentary biographical material on I subject. Of course, by tracing the late merchant prince’s membership in i many organizations to which longed, he will surely come acros most interesting data. He will iind tha Colonel Friedsam was a mcmb such varied organizations as the Arch tectural League, the Museum of Fr< Art, the Fifth Avenue Association ( which he was the President). the French Institute of the United the Metropolitan Museum of An etc., and that these membership' were never nominal. But, so to speak, they were merely a part of his oftic tivities. Friedsam the man, who never mar ried, who delighted in sending anonym ous aid to private families, who gave huge sums for institutions with the pre vision that his name should not F men tioned, who spent millions on He and Dutch paintings and at the same time would not hesitate to disc! employe for a slight breach pline—this Friedsam, this indie- contrasts, who kept his person and sorrows strictly to him>< perhaps never be known. His death removes one of t gifted and cultured business h this country, and one of those least known. Copyright 1931 by S. A. F. S. disci- d joys • will most ;ers of .0 was