Adolph Alfred Taubman

Adolph Alfred "Al" Taubman (January 31, 1924 – April 17, 2015) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was convicted in 2002 for a price-fixing scheme involving the top two auction houses in the United States. Background Taubman was born in Pontiac, Michigan, on January 31, 1924, to Jewish immigrants Fannie Ester Blustin and Philip Taubman. His parents emigrated to the United States from Białystok, in northeastern Poland. His mother was his father's second cousin. Arriving up the Mississippi River by boat, Philip took a job with the Wilson Foundry Company in Davenport, Iowa and his sister Goldye (born 1913) and older brothers Sam (born 1915) and Lester (born 1920) were born in Davenport. His father transferred to Pontiac in 1920, became a fruit farmer, then began developing commercial real estate and custom homes and built the first synagogue in Pontiac. Taubman's parents lost everything in the Depression of the 1930s, and Taubman at age nine had to find work to help support the family. He is a graduate of Pontiac Central High School. He enrolled at the University of Michigan just before the United States' entry into World War II, enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces during his freshman year, served with the Thirteenth Air Force as a mapmaker in the Pacific Theater during the war and returned under the GI Bill to the University of Michigan to continue his studies after the end of World War II.