Alan Bernstein '63 |
Alan Bernstein ’63 elected alumni trustee
The alumni have elected Alan S. Bernstein, an entrepreneur
and a member of the Class of 1963, to a six-year term on the college’s
Board of Trustees, effective July 1.
Born in Washington, D.C., in 1941, Bernstein graduated from Amherst with honors
in economics and went on to Harvard, where he earned his M.B.A. degree in 1966.
He spent a year working for an
investment firm in Peru—where he met his wife and future business partner,
Jayusia Perelman—and also worked for Loeb, Rhoades & Co. before becoming
vice president of Hanover Petroleum
Corporation in 1972. Five years later he founded Stratigraphic Petroleum, a privately
held company engaged in petroleum exploration and production. In
1993 he launched his current investment-advisory business, Stratigraphic Asset Management, Inc., in Miami.
Bernstein won the election as a write-in candidate. “It was a wonderful
experience because I had contact with people from classes across 40 years,” he
said.
An active member of the Amherst
Association of South Florida and former president of the Dallas association,
Bernstein also served the Class of 1963 as class president, leadership-gifts
chair and 35th-Reunion chair.
As part of his Reunion work, Bernstein provided the impetus for the Class of
1963 Website, an ambitious and lively Internet enterprise that has become something
of a model for other classes. Digital communication is an area in which he is
particularly interested. “Most alumni have a relation to the college only
through mailings and the magazine,” he said. “But with the Internet
and e-mail, it’s really possible to connect the alumni. There’s so
much knowledge and so many resources in the alumni of Amherst; it’s time
to put this to work, not only in ways that promote the Amherst community, but
to help each other.”
Bernstein’s dedication to Amherst
reflects a commitment to higher education shared by his family. His son Leo ’94,
brother Dan ’59 and niece Margaret
Santana ’95 are Amherst graduates. Bernstein’s other son, Marc, will
graduate from New York University in 2007. Alan Bernstein’s other brother,
George, is the dean of Tulane College, and his father was a professor of economics
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The most important
experience my father had was the break he got in becoming a professor,” Bernstein
says. “He taught us that we all are largely a product of our education,
so you can never give back enough.”
Next: Jeffery Amherst, naturalist >>
|
