Martin E. Segal founded the Martin E. Segal Company in 1939 and served as President until 1967, as Chairman from 1967 to 1991 and as Chairman Emeritus until his passing in August 2012. During and after World War II, Mr. Segal was a pioneer in the creation and establishment of health and pension benefits for employees via multiemployer trust funds established through collective bargaining, single-employer benefit plans and government plans in states, cities and towns. The Board of Directors of The Segal Group, Inc. passed a resolution in Mr. Segal’s memory. View the resolution.
Mr. Segal was frequently cited in newspapers and magazines as an authority on pension, health insurance and collectively bargained programs. He served as a columnist for the Associated Press and helped to found The Public Interest, a quarterly publication devoted to domestic social and economic issues. He also testified before Congress (here is a letter from Senator John F. Kennedy) and assisted with the formation of the Judicial Survivor’s Annuity Plan (here is a letter from Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Warren Burger).
In addition to his role as a benefits expert, Mr. Segal was active in civic affairs. From 1961 to 1970, he was a member of the National Board of the National Urban League. He served on the Board of Hospitals in the City of New York from 1962 to 1970 and subsequently on the Board of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.
In 1974, Mr. Segal chaired a committee study on the role of the arts in the economic well-being of the City of New York — the first study of its kind. The committee recommended the first Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York, a new agency of the city's government. Mr. Segal was appointed the first Chairman of the Advisory Commission for Cultural Affairs of the City of New York in 1975, and he served in this role for two years.
He was a former board member of nearly two dozen other cultural and educational organizations, including the Graduate Center Foundation, Inc. of the City University of New York.
Mr. Segal was the recipient of honorary doctorates from Pratt Institute (1976), Mannes College of Music (1976), the Graduate Center, City University of New York (1979), Long Island University (1986), New York University (1988), Manhattan School of Music (1999), and The Juilliard School (2006).
View the President of the Alliance for the Arts, Randall Bourscheidt's "Thoughts on the Passing of Martin E. Segal"