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Elizabeth and Felix G. Rohatyn papers

Call Number

MS 3015

Date

circa 1900?-2020 (bulk 1975-2012), inclusive

Creator

Rohatyn, Felix G., 1928-2019

Extent

14.75 Linear feet in 17 boxes of various sizes

Language of Materials

The collection is primarily in English, but also includes some correspondence and other documents in French.

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The Elizabeth and Felix G. Rohatyn papers include documents related to the Rohatyns's public service, philanthropy, and policy advocacy on matters of infrastructure investment, political economy and international relations, especially for the 1990s and early 2000s. Felix's speeches, writings and interviews on these subjects are found throughout the collection. Felix's years as ambassador to France (1997-2000) are represented in the collection. Elizabeth's work on the Boards of the not-for-profits French Regional & American Museum Exchange (FRAME) and Teaching Matters, Inc. (TMI) are included, with some files concerning the New York Public Library. The collection includes many personal photographs of the Rohatyns and their family.

Biographical/Historical Note

Felix George Rohatyn was born on 29 May 1928 in Vienna, Austria. His family moved to France in 1935 where his parents divorced and his mother remarried. Rohatyn and his mother (Edith Plessner) and his step-father (Henry Plessner), all Jews, narrowly escaped Nazi-occupied France in 1940. With the intervention of Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, the Brazilian ambassador to France, the family eventually moved to Brazil. In June 1942, the family arrived in New York City. Beginning in 1944, Rohatyn attended Middlebury College in Vermont. He returned to France briefly in 1947 to reunite with his father at his brewing business, but then returned to America to graduate in 1949 from Middlebury with a degree in physics. Rohatyn's stepfather's acquaintance with André Meyer, the head of the investment banking firm Lazard Frères, led to Felix joining the firm in 1949, setting the course of his professional life in finance.

Rohatyn became a U.S. citizen in May 1950. His initial assignments for Lazard had him working for affiliated firms in Europe, but these were interrupted when Rohatyn was drafted into the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953. He went through basic training at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and the Army Intelligence School at Fort Riley, Kansas. Assigned to the 28th Infantry Division, Rohatyn was sent to Germany at the rank of sergeant and with the title of Order of Battle Specialist. At the conclusion of his military service, he returned to Lazard, working first in Europe and then joining the New York office in 1955, where he would remain until 1997. In 1956, Rohatyn married Jeannette Streit, an interpreter who worked on the United Nations staff. They would have three sons together: Pierre, Nicolas and Michael.

By the early 1960s, Rohatyn was a partner at Lazard, working as an investment banker with mergers and acquisitions. The nature of this work led him beyond Lazard, taking positions on the Boards of firms he advised, such as ITT, and positions supporting the financial industry more generally, such as being on the New York Stock Exchange's Board of Governors (1968-72). This expanding network eventually led, in 1975, to Rohatyn being asked by New York Governor Hugh Carey to bring his expertise to bear on the fiscal crisis faced by New York City. As part of the rescue initiative, a new entity, the Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) was formed, and Rohatyn was named its Chairman within a few months of its creation. Rohatyn helped lead the effort to manage New York's brush with bankruptcy through 1975 and then through the following years as the city's finances stabilized and strengthened. Rohatyn stayed on with MAC until 1993 when he stepped down as Chairman.

In 1979, Rohatyn married his second wife, Elizabeth (née Fly). Elizabeth was born in 1930 in Memphis. She had been previously married twice and had a daughter, Nina, from her first marriage. Through the 1980s, the Rohatyns expanded their philanthropic activities, including support for the I Have a Dream Foundation (the 1986 cohort of students in the program is known as the "Rohatyn cohort") and with Elizabeth joining the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library in 1985. In 1994, Elizabeth founded Teaching Matters Inc. (TMI), a not-for-profit organization aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of teachers and school administrators, especially with respect to the integration of technology into schools.

In April 1997, Felix resigned from Lazard and a few months later was named by President Bill Clinton to the position of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to France. He and Elizabeth moved to Paris where they served until December 2000. Near the conclusion of Rohatyn's tenure as ambassador, Elizabeth founded a new organization, the French Regional & American Museum Exchange (FRAME). The mission of the organization was, and is, to develop U.S.-France cultural exchanges in the context of museum collaborations for exhibitions, education programs, and the like. Elizabeth served as Co-Founding Co-President of FRAME, along with Francoise Cachin, who was then the Director of the Musées de France.

Returning to America in 2001, Felix formed an advisory firm, Rohatyn Associates LLC, and also served on the Boards of various business interests and policy groups, such as the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). During the early 2000s, he more fully developed as an advocate for government investment in America's infrastructure, a theme he elaborated in his book Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now (2009). He also wrote a memoir, Dealings: A Political and Financial Life (2010), of his career in finance, reflecting on his early career, his work in mergers and acquisitions for Lazard, and New York City's crisis year of 1975. He returned to Lazard in 2010 as an adviser to Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth M. Jacobs. Rohatyn died on December 14, 2019.

Elizabeth had been named Chairman of the New York Public Library in November 1995, and returned to America in 2001 to continue her active involvement on the Board as Chairman Emeritus. She also continued her active engagement with Teaching Matters, FRAME, and other organizations. Elizabeth died in 2016.

(The above note was based on various sources including, among others, Felix Rohatyn's memoir Dealings; the Wikipedia entry for Rohatyn; the websites for FRAME and for Teaching Matters; the New York Times obituary for Elizabeth; and documents in the collection.)

Arrangement Note

The collection is organized in the following series:

Series I. General Correspondence and Subject Files, 1982-2016 (bulk, 2001-2010)

Series II. New York City Fiscal Crisis, 1975-2013

Series III. Remarks, Speeches and Writings, 1980s-2016

Series IV. Ambassadorship Files, 1994-2001 (bulk, 1997-2000)

Series V. Elizabeth Rohatyn Board Files, 1993-2013

Series VI. Personal Photographs and Biographical Documents, Circa 1900?-2017

Scope and Contents Note

The Elizabeth and Felix G. Rohatyn papers include documents related to the Rohatyns's public service, philanthropy, and policy advocacy on matters of political economy and international relations, especially for the 1990s and early 2000s. The collection includes an extensive set of Felix's correspondence files from the 2000s that principally concern his advocacy for government investment in national infrastructure projects, along with political and business matters. These files hold correspondence from many notable individuals, including U.S. presidents (especially Bill Clinton), many U.S. senators and congressmen and congresswomen, business leaders, and others. Rohatyn's policy advocacy is documented in his speeches, articles and other writings, and interviews found throughout the collection. There is a set of papers from Rohatyn's years as ambassador to France (1997-2000), including confirmation documents, schedules, and binders of the speeches he made during these years. Rohatyn's activities with respect to New York City's fiscal crisis in 1975 are lightly represented with clippings and a series of photographic negatives taken in connection with activities of the Municipal Assistance Corporation and legislation signed by President Jimmy Carter in August 1978.

Elizabeth Rohatyn's initiatives in the educational and cultural arenas are well-represented in the collection. Elizabeth's founding of and continuing engagement with the French Regional & American Museum Exchange (FRAME) and with Teaching Matters, Inc. (TMI) are included, as are some files concerning her involvement with the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library. Elizabeth's involvement in social diplomacy as the wife of the ambassador to France is reflected in the collection.

The collection also holds many photographs of Felix, Elizabeth and their families. Felix's years as a child, as a young man, in the military, in leisure activities like skiing, with Bill Clinton, at award ceremonies, and others are in the collection. One photograph of Felix was taken and autographed by Richard Avedon. Elizabeth is represented in photographs primarily from later years with Felix and at gala events, likely associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Access Restrictions

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation Note

This collection should be cited as the Elizabeth and Felix G. Rohatyn papers, MS 3015, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition Note

The collection was donated by Felix G. Rohatyn in May 2015. A small amount of additional material was donated in December 2017.

Collection processed by

Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:51:06 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information Note

The collection, both the initial donation from 2015 and the additional material received in 2017, was processed by archivist Larry Weimer in 2017.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024