Julien J. Studley (born Julien Joseph Stuckgold) was a prominent American real estate broker and chairman of The New School. Born on May 14, 1927, Studley’s parents were Jewish immigrants to Belgium from Poland. The Stuckgolds moved to France at the start of World War II and later escaped to Cuba. When Studley was sixteen, the family relocated to New York City. Studley earned a high school equivalency diploma and started working in Manhattan’s diamond district before becoming an apprentice real estate salesman.

He obtained a broker’s license and started his own commercial brokerage firm, Julien J. Studley Inc., in 1954. The company was sold to his partners in 2002 and later bought by the London-based real estate firm Savills in 2014. It was renamed Savills Studley after the acquisition. Studley did not receive a college degree; instead he took humanities courses at The New School. As a philanthropist, he supported The New School, the City University of New York Graduate Center, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. His donations to The New School helped to create The New School’s Observatory on Latin America and support the study of international affairs at the university. In 2012, The New School honored Studley by renaming the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs.

Studley passed away in 2015 from brain cancer at the age of 88.

Sources: Roberts, Sam. “Julien Studley, a Refugee Who Built a Commercial Real Estate Empire, Dies at 88.” The New York Times. October 17, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/realestate/commercial/julien-studley-real-estate-broker-who-began-career-in-a-bedroom-dies-at-88.html

“The New School Remembers Julien J. Studley.” The New School News. The New School, October 14, 2015. https://blogs.newschool.edu/news/2015/10/the-new-school-remembers-julien-j-studley/