Leslie Ann Mandel-Herzog of Manhattan, New York, and Wainscott (Long Island), New York, president of the Rich List Company, investor in airplane funding and leasing, and explorer, died on June 23, 2015, from kidney stone complications. She was 69.
Ms. Mandel-Herzog was also involved with the Urban Coalition, Harry Winston Foundation, Children’s Aid Society and the Circle in the Square Theater, to name a few of her charitable endeavors. More recently, she became a member of the Explorers Club in New York City.
Born July 29, 1945, the daughter of Seymour and Marjorie Mandel, she grew up in Minneapolis, graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in art history. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}She moved to New York City, where she started the Prisoners’ Family Transportation and Assistance Fund and was awarded the Volunteer Service Award by then Vice President Gerald Ford in 1972. A die-hard Democrat, she worked in Jimmy Carter’s campaign for president and Robert Kennedy’s campaign for the Senate in New York. In 1979, after the election of Ronald Reagan, she worked with the Inaugural Committee. They were looking for fast and accurate typists, and survivors said Ms. Mandel-Herzog typed more than 100 words a minute and thought it would be fun ... and it was.
Horseback riding came naturally to her. She was self-taught and could climb on just about any horse and immediately control the situation, family and friends said. One of her greatest experiences was riding across Mongolia on horseback, camping her way across the country. Some of her other accomplishments included teaching herself Braille and becoming a certified Braillist for the Library of Congress.
For a living, she developed what was for a time the largest private mailing list in the country, which she called “The Rich List.” She started this list by writing to every synagogue in the United States and compiling an enormous list of Jews, the backbone of the list. This exercise took her more than two years to compile, all done by hand in those days. Tenacity was her greatest strength, survivors said.
In 1999, she married the noted author Arthur Herzog, the only true love in her life; he died in 2010. She had great fun helping her husband with research on some of his books; most interesting was the tracking down and interviewing of Robert Vesco, allegedly guilty of and on the run from one of the largest Securities and Exchange fraud schemes in the United States.
“There was nothing Leslie enjoyed more than making deals and helping others put deals together. She used to say she loved playing in the business sandbox with big boys,” said close friend Lee Marvins.
Family and friends say she will be remembered for her tenacity of spirit, unconditional love, and, later in life, love and adoption of unwanted animals, most notably her beloved dog, Frosty, and 32 cockatiel birds.
She is survived by two sisters, Avis Mandel (Napa, California) and Tracy Mandel McHugh and husband Michael (Prairie Village, Kansas); nephews and nieces, Harry Stern, Alex and Charlie Botwin, and Erin and Mike McHugh Jr.; and stepson, Matthew Herzog.{/mprestriction}