David Margolis, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetDavid Margolis
American businessman
Date of Birth: 24-Jan-1930
Date of Death: 13-Dec-2008
Profession: businessperson
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius 
About David Margolis
- David Israel Margolis (January 24, 1930 – December 13, 2008) was an American industrialist who served as president and chairman of Colt Industries, who was a confidant of former Mayor of New York City Ed Koch. Margolis was born in the Bronx on January 24, 1930.
- He attended the City College of New York where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in economics.
- After graduating, he became the assistant treasurer at Raytheon and treasurer of International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT).
- Margolis met Harold Geneen at a Boston company in the 1950s and followed him to ITT.He met his wife, the former Barbara Ann Schneider, in 1958, when she was a security officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- They married six months later, and moved to New York City in 1959.Margolis was president of Colt Industries from 1962 to 1995, a firm founded in 1836 by Samuel Colt, and served as the company's chairman from 1984 to 1995.
- Margolis expanded the company from its original roles as a firearms manufacturer into a producer of machinery for the aerospace, automobile, chemical and petroleum industries, with annual revenues of $1.6 billion as of 1988.Margolis and his wife Bobbie, then a volunteer at Rikers Island, met the future mayor at a 1967 dinner honoring a prison warden, where they were all seated at the same table.
- Edward Koch was sworn into office as mayor on December 31, 1977 at the Margolis home at 30 East 72nd Street.
- In 1979, his wife was named official greeter of New York City—officially the vice chairman of the City Commission for Distinguished Guests—the first woman to hold the honorary post which paid a salary of $1 per year.A 1980 profile in The New York Times called Margolis Koch's right-hand man, quoting Koch who called him one of his "closest friends and advisors".
- Though Margolis played down his relationship with the mayor, he was described as playing the behind-the-scenes role as the mayor's unofficial labor expert during the 1980 New York City transit strike, in which subway workers were on picket lines for 11 days.
- Koch included Margolis in City Hall strategy sessions and consulted with him on budget, economic development and labor issues.Margolis, a resident of Manhattan died at age 78 on December 13, 2008 due to cardiac arrest.
- He was survived by his wife, a daughter, three sons and five grandchildren.
Read more at Wikipedia