Jerome Kern, former CEO of the Colorado Symphony. Photo courtesy of Colorado Symphony.
In the December 17 Denver Post, John Wenzel writes, “Jerome H. Kern, who fiercely advocated for some of the biggest artistic, philanthropic and business causes in Denver and the U.S., has died at age 87. Kern died Friday, Dec. 13, after being diagnosed a month ago with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, said Mary Rossick Kern, his wife of 26 years…. Kern’s … devotion to deal-making allowed him to seal tense, complex agreements that spanned his and Mary’s restoration of the Colorado Symphony, Kern’s own colorful past as a cable-industry lawyer and CEO of Playboy Enterprises, and national nonprofit causes. The Kerns have for years been significant leaders in the arts community who are widely credited as saving the Colorado Symphony from ruin in 2011 … ‘The Colorado Symphony deeply mourns the loss of Jerome H. Kern, a visionary leader and advocate for the arts whose impact on our organization will be felt for generations to come,’ Symphony officials wrote in a statement … He was born in Brooklyn on June 1, 1937, and graduated cum laude from the New York University School of Law … following his 1957 bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. As a trustee of the New York University School of Law, he donated $5 million to the Root-Tilden Scholarship program and led a $30 million endowment effort…. Kern retired from [the] Colorado Symphony in 2021.”
