Zanvyl Krieger

Zanvyl Krieger

• School Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University
• High School Baltimore City College

• Born April 1, 1906 in Baltimore, MD USA
• Died September 5, 2000 in Baltimore, MD USA

Biographical Information

Zanvyl Krieger was a prominent businessman and philanthropist in Baltimore, MD who also was a minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles when they relocated to the city from St. Louis, MO before the 1954 season.

He was born in a well-to-do Jewish family whose fortune was made in distilling and distributing rye whisky. After obtaining a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Harvard University, he began practicing law, but amassed his fortune through an investment in a medical supply company, U.S. Surgical Corp., which distributed a surgical stapling device first developed in the USSR. He gave up a large part of his fortune to charitable causes such as the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Sinai Hospital and his alma mater, Johns Hopkins. The school of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins was renamed in his honor after he made a very large donation.

He was one of a group of local investors rounded up by Baltimore Mayor Tom D'Alesandro and attorney Clarence Miles in order to purchase the St. Louis Browns outright from Bill Veeck after the 1953 season. The two men's plan had originally been to buy only half of Veeck's stock, which would have left him the principal shareholder, before moving the team to Baltimore, but other American League owners objected, as they wanted to get rid of Veeck. Therefore, they turned to prominent local business people to round up the remainder of the $2.5 million purchase price, with brewer Jerold Hoffberger and real estate developer James Keelty among the other stockholders. With Veeck out of the picture, the league owners gave unanimous approval to the transaction and the team was ren-named the Orioles, taking the traditional name used by baseball teams in the city. Krieger had invested in other sports ventures, including the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League; he later regretted selling his shares, as this led to the team's eventual purchase by Robert Irsay, who would move the Colts to Indianapolis, IN. With the Orioles, he served as Vice-President of the Board of Directors and did not sell his shares to Hoffberger when he bought out most of the other minority owners in the early 1960s. He finally sold them to Edward Bennett Williams in 1979, alongside Hoffberger, as he had been given assurances that the team would remain in the city.

Related Sites

• Biography from Johns Hopkins University