Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll look at Leonard Lauder, who built the company started by his mother, Estée Lauder, into a global brand. As a reporter, I interviewed him many times over 15 years.
Leonard A. Lauder — the chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Companies, who died last week at 92 — was a corporate titan, an art collector and a philanthropist of extraordinary measure.
He was also a New Yorker. By residence, by disposition and with passion, Lauder was a son of the city — educated in its public schools, nurtured by its museums and shaped by the energy that electrifies those who walk its avenues.
When he was asked in November 2020, in the face of a still-raging pandemic, what he would say to those moving out of the city, he almost did not understand the question.
“I’d ask them why,” he said, incredulously. “‘Why would you ever want to leave New York City?’” The city has the best doctors in the world, he said, the best transportation system. The taxes can be high, sure, but look at the services they help pay for. The museums! The people! He could go on.
“I’m reminded of a phrase I learned from a friend of mine who moved out of New York City and after a year or two moved back,” he said. “If someone said, ‘Where are you going for dinner?’ he said, ‘I’m going to a SOFA party. Same Old Faces Again.’”
“People who truly love New York, they need more than a SOFA life.”
I was among the many faces that Lauder interacted with in his city. Over more than 15 years, I wrote a handful of articles about him, both for The Wall Street Journal, my previous employer, and for The New York Times. They traced an emotional arc of his later years.
Notably, in 2011 I wrote a piece about his 52-year marriage to Evelyn Lauder about a week after she died. After he read the piece, Lauder called me in the newsroom and started to cry.
Over the years, we had a number of conversations (about Public School 87, which includes among its illustrious alumni my children and, more than seven decades earlier, Lauder), shared many meals (including breakfast in his Fifth Avenue apartment during the pandemic, after we had both been vaccinated) and a handful of letters and emails.
Sample: “Clue 62-down on The New York Times crossword today is ‘style pioneered by Picasso’ — and I knew the answer was ‘CUBIST’ because I learned that from you,” I wrote to him in 2021. Years earlier, Lauder had promised the Metropolitan Museum of Art his large collection of Cubist art.
“Guess what?” he replied. “It was Braque who invented Cubism, not Picasso. Braque always admired his fellow painters but famously said ‘If Picasso should come into your studio, cover your paintings.’”
My favorite meal of those we shared was in 2014.
My editor had heard that Lauder, by then a widower for three years, was engaged to a woman named Judy Glickman, who lived in Maine. I told my editor I could try to get the story. On a hunch that putting pen to paper might win me favor, I mailed Lauder a letter asking him if we could have lunch.
He responded — also by mail — and we met at Michael’s on West 55th Street, among the most powerful of New York power-lunch spots, back when that was a thing.
Sitting at a corner table, we talked about family and work between visits from other diners who came to say hello and pay homage. After a former Neiman Marcus bigwig popped by (and lauded Lauder’s savvy in monitoring immigrant populations in different cities and making sure the Estée Lauder counters carried makeup shades to suit them), I made my pitch.
“How would you feel about my writing a story to introduce your fiancée to the readers of The New York Times who have known you almost since you were a teenager working for your mother?”
His response was quick and unequivocal: “I only do press that sells lipstick, and that story doesn’t sell lipstick.”
I could not push further because, right then, a woman swooped by and began to gush about how deeply she admired Lauder. He smiled and took in her praise happily, but when she said, “And your work as ambassador to Austria was so inspiring,” he stopped her.
“You’ve mistaken me for my brother, Ronald,” he said. “I’m the one who made the money. He is the one who spends the money.”
I’ve never witnessed a greater mic-drop moment.
As I walked back to the newsroom after we said goodbye, my phone rang. It was Lauder. “I have one question,” he said. “Would this story about me and Judy be good for Katie Rosman’s career?”
I told him that delivering a story that my boss was avid for would certainly be good for my career.
The subsequent article, “Beginning Again: The Love Story of Leonard Lauder and Judy Glickman,” remains one of my favorites.
Lauder’s private funeral will be held at Central Synagogue, right in the middle of New York City.
Weather
Expect showers and thunderstorms with temperatures nearing 80. In the evening, cloudy conditions should continue, with more showers and thunderstorms possible and the temperature falling into the low 70s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Thursday (Juneteenth)
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METROPOLITAN diary
Apricot Blossoms
Dear Diary:
When we moved to Brooklyn, we planted a rosebush against our front yard fence. It had delicate apricot blossoms with a beautiful scent.
As it grew, it would spill over the top of the fence onto the sidewalk. In late autumn’s cool days, there would always be one or two roses that seemed to last for weeks.
Naturally, people passing by would stop to smell the roses. Occasionally, I would come outside and see the ragged stems where someone had torn off a few. The selfishness upset me quite a bit.
One October morning, I came outside to see a woman with her face and hands in the rosebush. I was on the verge of scolding her for taking a rose when she spoke to me.
“My friend liked to stop here every day to smell the roses,” she said. “He died last week, but that rose is still here.”
I had to go inside and lean against the wall with my eyes closed.
— June Alpert
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. James Barron is back tomorrow. K.R.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Davaughnia Wilson, Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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Katherine Rosman covers newsmakers, power players and individuals making an imprint on New York City.
The post Leonard Lauder, a Consummate New Yorker appeared first on New York Times.
