Carl Seaman, partner in retailer Seaman's Furniture
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, April 20, 2009
GREENWICH, Conn. — Carl Seaman, brother and one-time partner in former retailer Seaman's Furniture with Morty Seaman, died of pneumonia on April 11. He was 73.
Seaman's was founded in Brooklyn in 1932 by Carl and Morty's father, Julius, with a $500 loan from his mother-in-law. When Julius died in 1954, Morty came on board and was followed three years later by Carl as an equal partner.
The two built the chain into a multimillion-dollar business and brought in their sons (Morty's son Jeff Seaman, now CEO of retailer Rooms To Go, and Carl's son Jordan Seaman) as merchandiser and marketer, respectively. Seaman's went public in 1985 and was sold in 1987 to a private equity firm. The chain ultimately merged with Levitz and was closed in 2005.
“He was meticulous, a numbers man,” Morty Seaman said of his brother. He said Carl also was a “sports nut. Whether it was the New York Giants or the Knicks or the Mets, that was his love in life in addition to his family.”
Carl Seaman left in 1987 to work in non-furniture businesses ETI Financial Corp. and Seminole Casualty Insurance.
He also became heavily involved in charitable work, primarily causes associated with familial dysautonomia, a rare genetic disease that affects the autonomic and nervous systems of children from birth and includes symptoms such as reduced sensitivity to pain and temperature and the inability to produce tears.
Seaman's gifts helped advance research of the disease and fund a faculty post at New York University, eventually named the Carl Seaman Family Professorship. Tests were developed to determine early in a pregnancy whether the disease was present, and whether couples wanting a baby were carriers. Now, researchers are getting close to genetic treatment of the disease.
Carl Seaman is survived by his wife, daughter, son and four grandchildren.
Memorials may be made to North Shore Child and Family Guidance, 480 Old Westbury Road, Roslyn Heights, N.Y. 11577.
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Former Seaman's Furniture partner Carl Seaman dies
Apr 15, 2009
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