Roy Neuberger - Biography

Biography

Roy Rothschild Neuberger was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and spent his childhood in New York. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he was orphaned at the age of 12. He describes himself as having been interested during high school in tennis and "the ladies." He matriculated at New York University, originally to study journalism, but grew restless and dropped out without obtaining a degree.

His first job was working in the Manhattan department store B. Altman and Company. Among the things he practiced selling were paintings, which nurtured his love of art. He sailed to Europe at age 20 on an inheritance from his parents, and went to live in Paris. He enjoyed a bohemian lifestyle there, visiting the Louvre three times a week, where he met his lifelong friend, 20th century art historian Meyer Schapiro.

Neuberger painted and studied art until 1928, when he read Floret Fels' biography of Vincent Van Gogh. He was startled when he learned how Van Gogh had only sold one painting, and was heartstricken to learn that Van Gogh, like so many other artists, lived in pain, poverty and misery.

He moved back to the United States and entered Wall Street in 1929, seven months before Black Tuesday. He started out with Halle & Stieglitz and sold short RCA shares, through the stock market crash and well into the Great Depression. He founded Neuberger Berman in 1939 with Robert Berman. In 1950, Neuberger's firm started one of the first no-load mutual funds in the United States, the Guardian Fund, which is still in operation today.