Jennings Hertz

(1926 – 2009)

Jennings Hertz, former chairman of United Distributors, was a philanthropist and patron of the arts in Atlanta. A native of Pensacola, Florida, Hertz graduated from the Warton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1948. He became chief executive officer of United Distributors, a company established by his father in the 1940s.

Hertz hoped to be an actor, and after some time in the Navy, he went to New York to pursue a career off-Broadway. He brought his musical talents to The Temple, and in 1994, scored a musical tribute for the celebration of Rabbi Sugarman’s twenty years of service. In 2000, the Alliance Theater renamed its Studio Theater The Hertz Stage. His son, Doug Hertz, said of his father, “The highlight of his life was when they named the stage for him.”

Jack Sawyer, a longtime friend recalled, “He and his family have pioneered the arts in Atlanta. I don’t know where the Atlanta arts community would be—where the fabric of our city would be—today were it not for a very few pioneer families who have given so much in time, talent, energy, enthusiasm, and yes, financial resources.”