Orin Lehman papers, 1843-1993, bulk 1950-1993

Orin Allen Lehman was born on January 24, 1920 in New York, New York. His parents Allan S. Lehman and Evelyn Schiffer Lehman were involved in the Lehman family business, Lehman Brothers investment house, founded by Lehman's great-grandfather Mayer Lehman. Herbert H. Lehman, New York's Depression-era governor and U.S. Senator from 1949 to 1957, was Orin Lehman's great uncle.

Lehman spent his early years on a small farm in Tarrytown on the Hudson with his older sister Ellen Lehman. In 1938, he graduated from Taft Preparatory School and continued to Princeton University where he was a participant in the freshman football team and a member of Cap and Gown. After earning an A.B. degree in Psychology in 1942, Lehman entered the military and served as a pilot-observer for the field artillery in World War II. Seriously wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, Lehman lost one leg and partial use of the other leg, resulting in his use of metal braces to walk. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to the rank of captain. For his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart.

After the war, Lehman embarked on two careers. In 1947, he began working as an associate at Lehman Brothers, and two years later he joined Eleanor Roosevelt and Bernard Baruch to found Just One Break, a non-profit organization aimed to increase competitive employment opportunities for disabled individuals. While he went on to serve as chairman of Just One Break's board of directors for nearly half a century, he discontinued working at Lehman Brothers after five years.

Over the course of his life, Lehman worked a variety of careers. From 1951 to 1959, he published five upstate New York newspapers and in 1958 he became chair of Colgreene Broadcasting Group, the owner of stations in Hudson, New York and on the west coast.

However, directly after the war, during his own period of rehabilitation, Lehman became especially interested in the subject that shaped much of his life work: the role of rehabilitation in increasing the employment opportunities of people with handicaps. While recuperating from his injuries, Lehman spent significant time in Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. where he met Dr. Howard Rusk, a specialist in rehabilitation. Lehman formed a working relationship with Dr. Rusk, helping to raise money for various rehabilitation projects in his capacity as Chairman of the Governor's, and later Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy/Johnson's Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped.

Lehman's amicable and working relationship with Dr. Rusk later influenced his pursuit of advanced degrees in the history department at New York University. Lehman wrote his doctoral thesis about Dr. Rusk, The Early Life of Howard A. Rusk, M.D., 1901-1945, and by 1961 obtained an M.A. and a PhD in History. Holding his doctoral degree, Lehman continued at New York University as faculty in the history department from 1961 to 1962 and moved to the New School for Social Research to teach from 1963 to 1964. At the second of the two institutions, Lehman taught a course called Age of Roosevelt, and his lectures were well attended. While the New School intended to make Lehman a trustee, Lehman initially resisted because, as a trustee, he would not have been able to continue as a teacher.

Lehman did not confine his public works to the academic sphere. He served in many non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting the health and welfare of veterans and other under-served populations. As director of the Sister Elizabeth Kenney Foundation from 1950-1953, Lehman directed resources toward the care of individuals afflicted with poliomyelitis.

From the 1950s onward, Lehman involved himself in many other civic and philanthropic organizations, including the New York Citizens' Committee for Public Higher Education (President); American Jewish Committee (Secretary); WNDT Channel 13, Educational Broadcasting Corporation (Director); New School for Social Research (Trustee); Marist College (Trustee); Montefiore Hospital (Trustee); Joint Defense Appeal, Anti -Defamation League, American Jewish Committee (Treasurer 1952-1956); Council on Foreign Relations (1953-1954); Orin Lehman Foundation (1953-1964); U.S. Committee for the United Nations (Director 1956-1964); Abilities, Inc. (Vice President); U.S. Committee of the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (Trustee); World Rehabilitation Fund, Inc. (Director); Freedom House (Director 1964); American Society of African Culture (Director); Jewish Welfare Board (Member); George Junior republic (Director 1951-1961); National Urban League (Treasurer and Director 1948-1956); Governor's Task Force on Equal Opportunity (1975); American Israel Society (Member); and N.A.A.C.P (Member).

In addition to voluntary civic affiliations, Lehman was also the recipient of several public appointments. His first came in 1950 when President Truman appointed him to the advisory board of the Economic Cooperation Administration. At this post for two years, Lehman traveled the world as a U.S. advisor and wrote three reports: "E.C.A. in Southeast Asia," "European Productivity," and "American Trade and Tariff Policy." Lehman was a strong advocate of establishing a program for young Americans to serve as researchers and economic ambassadors abroad. Lehman was also an advocate of international economic integration in his post as Public Advisor to the United Nations Conference in Geneva on Trade and Development. Attending in May and June 1964, Lehman suggested that "the most significant aspect of the Conference was the new and firm alignment of nations…based on economic interests rather than political ideology." (NY Times, June 18, 1964, Letters to Editor).

Later in 1964, Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson appointed Lehman Executive Director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation. Lehman steered the foundation through a critical period of fund raising and policy forming, overseeing its Intern Program, which trained young people in inter-group relations and industry.

Throughout his life, Lehman played an active role in supporting New York Democratic Party and Democratic-Liberal Party politics as fundraiser and community organizer. Additionally, he made two unsuccessful bids for office, running for New York City Comptroller in 1965 and U.S. Representative of New York's 17th Congressional District in 1966.

From 1973 to 1975, Lehman served as head of the Corrections Board in New York City. During this time, Lehman also worked to produce and finance Broadway theatre productions as well as productions for television and film in conjunction with the company Odyssey Productions, Inc. Many of the plays he helped to produce enjoyed success and in 1971 one, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds, won a Pulitzer Prize.

A major supporter to the campaign of Hugh Carey for Governor, Lehman was appointed by Carey commissioner of the New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in 1975. His interest history helped shape his mission to rehabilitate existing park facilities and preserve historic state architecture. Though he presided over the parks department during a difficult financial era, he worked to keep admissions prices low so that the parks remained affordable to the public. Reappointed by Governor Mario Cuomo, Lehman ultimately served eighteen years as commissioner of the parks, retiring in 1993.

Orin's first wife, Jane Bagley Lehman died in 1988. He and his second wife, Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman, were divorced in 1995. Lehman had three daughters, Susan, Brooke and Sage and many grandchildren.

Lehman died of pneumonia at age 88 on February 22, 2008.