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David Lerner Lives the American Dream

He turns 'side business' into thriving investment firm–on the site of a petting zoo.

So, how exactly does a high school history teacher in the New York City school system end up establishing an investment company that now has branches in four states and manages nearly $8 billion of clients' assets?

"It all started as something part-time that I did on the side," explains David Lerner of Syosset-based David Lerner Associates. "I was teaching during the day, then sold life insurance and mutual funds on side as a home business."

Born and raised in the Bronx, Lerner graduated from Hunter College in Manhattan with a bachelor of arts in history, and went on to become a history and economics teacher at Bayside High School in Queens. He had every intention of remaining in the school.

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"I was very happy as a teacher," says Lerner, "and I took and passed the exam that would have led to a position as chairman of the history department."

But that plan was put on hold when a decentralization plan was implemented in the city schools, which Lerner felt effectively removed the structure and fairness of the system of promotion. Suddenly, he found himself rethinking his career direction.

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It was a difficult decision. By this time he had already moved from Queens to a home in Plainview, and he had a wife and growing family to consider.

"The teaching position was secure," he notes, "and there was a pension."

Ultimately, Lerner decided to take a chance.

"I had already had significant success with the part-time business and I decided it was time for a new season," he remembers. "So I resigned after 12 years of teaching."

"I started the investment company in January 1976 with $2,500," he says, "and that was the beginning of what's become an incredible American dream."

The business grew rapidly on one driving principal. "We were very conservative," he explains, "because early on I decided that to put people's rent and grocery money at risk in the stock market was a very dangerous thing."

The company's first office was a 400-square-foot rented space at 390 North Broadway in Jericho. It would remain there until 1984, when Lerner purchased land and built a new company headquarters in Syosset at 477 Jericho Tpke., the space it still occupies today.

Lerner laughs as he recounts the story of purchasing that land, noting that the first time he had set foot on it was actually two decades earlier, in a totally different context.

"We were living in Forest Hills with two young children and it was a Sunday afternoon–I think it was 1965," he recalls. "We had nothing to do, the kids were restless and we were at wit's end.

"I saw an ad in the paper for a petting farm in a place called Syosset. So we packed into our Plymouth Valiant and headed out, and I thought I was coming to the end of the world," he laughs. "And I thought to myself, 'How does anyone live so far from everything?'

"But on that day, nothing could have been more remote in my mind," Lerner says, "than to think that so many years later I would buy that land to build the company's headquarters there."

Along with a thriving business, Lerner has built a reputation for community involvement. Among the causes he supports are the Nassau County Police David Lerner Law Enforcement Appreciation Run, which annually raises money for Long Island police officers and their families, Trey Whitfield School (for inner-city students in Brooklyn), Cancer Walks, Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island Philharmonic and the Music Under The Stars concert series.

"It's my way of saying thank you and showing my appreciation to the people that have put their trust in me," Lerner says of his charity work. "And it's important to support institutions that enhance everyone's quality of life."

Learn more about David Lerner Associates at www.davidlerner.com.

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