Download the complete issue - Seton Hall University

A DVA N C E M E N T S P I R I T O F G I V I N G
32
Going the
Extra Mile
Like many dedicated runners, it was “the
knees” that forced David B. Gerstein to give up
jogging 20 years ago. But he hasn’t lost his stamina.
Exchanging running shoes for swim trunks, he
does 100 laps daily in an Olympic-size pool, swims
marathons and, last year, the 7½ miles between
Amagansett and Gardiners Island.
The discipline, ingrained in his days as a
star high school football player, plus the help he
received from others to build his businesses, are
key to understanding Gerstein’s three decades as
a major benefactor to the University.
“Seton Hall gave a lot to me and I wanted to
give back,” he said. “Life is short. You have to show
something for it other than making a buck.”
The son of a Russian immigrant, Gerstein grew
up in Paterson, N.J., and graduated in 1959 from
East Side High School. He worked his way through
Seton Hall, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in
business in 1963.
“I knew I’d never work for anybody else,” he said.
Opportunity arrived when he converted his father’s
carpet business into one that made material to
stop drafts from doors and windows. That led to
the founding of Thermwell Products Co., Inc. in
Mahwah, N.J., which manufactures and sells the
Frost King line of weather stripping products.
Gerstein later acquired an
interest in the New Jersey Nets
basketball team and became the
principal owner in 1986. It was
in that era, when the Nets and
Pirates shared the boards at the
Meadowlands Arena, that Gerstein
re-connected with Seton Hall by
kindling a friendship with Richie Regan, an NBA
player and legendary Pirate great who returned to the
University to serve as its long-time athletic director.
Gerstein was a founder of the Pirate Blue Athletic
Fund and has received many prestigious awards from
the University, among them the Many Are One Most
Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was also elected
to the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame and the
Entrepreneur Hall of Fame of the Stillman School of
Business, where he was honored with the school’s
alumnus of the year award and is a member of the
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies’ Board of Advisors.
Although he travels six months of the year as
Thermwell’s president and CEO, he also serves on
the University Board of Regents, as well as on the
boards of the Nets, the New York Yankees, and the
Yankees Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network.
In 2007 he created the David B. Gerstein Endowed
Scholarship. Grants of $2,000 to $2,500 are awarded