Herbert Adolph Scheftel, Jr.

Herbert Scheftel, 92, a Backer of Pan Am Building By SHELLY FREIERMAN Published: August 22, 2000

Herbert Scheftel, an investor in real estate and television stations, died on Wednesday in New York. Mr. Scheftel, who lived in New York and had residences in East Hampton and Le Touquet, France, was 92.

The best-known real estate project Mr. Scheftel was involved in, along with his brother, Stuart, and another partner, Alfred G. Burger, was the Pan Am building, now headquarters of the MetLife insurance company, which was built behind Grand Central Terminal on Park Avenue in 1963. The Pan Am project also involved Erwin S. Wolfson, who owned a contracting company, and several British investors. At one point, Grand Central City, as it was called, was to have had several theaters, an exhibition hall and an open-air restaurant.

Among Mr. Scheftel's other real estate investments were the Beresford and San Remo apartment buildings in New York, and the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. He also had ownership interests in three television stations and six cable television stations in Connecticut, Illinois and Mexico.

In 1931, Mr. Scheftel graduated from Baillol College of Oxford University with a combined bachelor's and master's degree in politics, economics and history. During World War II, he rose to the rank of major in the 64th Fighter Wing of the United States Air Force.

Mr. Scheftel and his first wife, Agnes Mary, who died in 1970, were active in several charitable organizations, including Greenwich House, a settlement house in New York. He has been a director of Greenwich House, where he concentrated on children's services, since 1938, and he was the president of the organization from 1954 to 1960.

In addition to his wife, Yolande, Mr. Scheftel is survived by his daughters, Francoise Fielding of San Franciso and Cynthia Fielding-Singh of Tucson; his niece, Susan Scheftel of New York; four grandchildren and a great-niece and nephew.