FOUNDATION CORNER

New York Medal Recipient Harry T. Rein

By Elaine Lembo

Harry T. Rein is the newest recipient of the Yacht Club Medal. The medal, instituted in 1964, honors achievements of particular merit or outstanding contribution to the Club or in general. It’s awarded by the Club flag officers on occasion as an exceptional expression of the Club’s appreciation. The Foundation is honored to include this recognition in this edition of Foundation Corner.—Editor DAN NERNEY DAN

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Harry T. Rein was awarded the New York Yacht Club Medal at the Club’s Annual Meeting on December 10, 2020, for extraordinary contributions to the Club and the yachting community in general. Rein has also played a pivotal role in the creation and success of the New York Yacht Club Foundation.

In 2007, Rein advised the Club on the formation of the Clear thinking, expert business judgment and long- Foundation and its designation as a tax-exempt public term planning skills made Rein an outstanding Club charity. During his tenure as Club treasurer, from 2008 treasurer, and they are now being applied again to his to 2016, he successfully maximized the Foundation’s role as Foundation treasurer and board member. ability to fund projects. “Harry has been key to the successes of the Specifically, tax-exempt status paved the way for Foundation, including increasing member these multi-year, Foundation-supported projects: participation,” says Matt Brooks, Foundation chair. at Harbour Court, the four-part restoration of the In 2019 alone, more than 30 percent of Club members façade and the restoration of the Hennery, Ice House joined the 175th Society, assisting in funding projects and Formal Gardens; at 44th Street, improvements that year. to the HVAC system and Grill Room. Rein’s guidance also made it possible to tackle renovations of several “You have to have a plan and a strategy, and Harry historic interior spaces, such as the Model Room, at was central in devising an extraordinarily successful 44th Street. strategy,” Brooks says. “It reflects the ethics and culture of the Club, and the Foundation is proud that one of its key members is honored with the Medal.” Visit www.nyycfoundation.org to make a charitable contribution and to learn more about the historic A Practice of Financial Discipline buildings of the New York Yacht Club. Your support is crucial in preserving our past and safeguarding The New York Yacht Club Medal also recognizes Rein’s

our future. talent for parsing complex financial and business

For the better part of a decade, from 2008 through 2016, Harry Rein served as the Club's treasurer, providing a steady hand and sage advice for a series of commodores as the Club continued to strengthen its financial position. DAN NERNEY DAN

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“Harry’s real benefit is not only being able to accurately report what has happened,” Elwell says. “More importantly, he has an uncanny ability to anticipate what’s over the horizon, good or bad. He’s very direct. He can cut through the fog that oftentimes trips up other people.”

For past Commodore Charles Townsend, under whose leadership Rein helped establish the Foundation, the honoree’s talents far exceed a knack for keeping the ledger straight.

“He’s a very gifted financial specialist,” Townsend says. “Harry’s ability to make the concept of sustainability understandable to board members allows them to focus on the critical decisions they have to make. It’s the most unique attribute I’ve ever seen. Rein, flanked in this photo by Commodore A. Rives Potts (right) and Commodore Philip A. Lotz (left), played an “Harry makes sense out of sets of numbers. He can put it on a integral role in the establishment of the New York Yacht table so it’s completely understandable. I’ve had years of business Club Regatta Association, a 501(c)(4) organization school, and quite frankly, I’ve learned more from Harry than established to help the Club run regattas open to the public. from all the formal education I’ve had.”

Rein, Elwell and Townsend, who’ve collaborated over the years in various Club committee roles, are increasingly turning their issues into understandable, concrete components that have time, talents and dedication to Foundation work and the effort assisted the Club leadership in other critical ways. to maintain the cherished Clubhouse properties. According to Brooks, in the next five years, the goal is to raise $7 million His distinguished nine-year term as Club treasurer is a toward needed Club restorations. period during which he created the Regatta Association. The Association is an enterprise that makes it possible for The Man Behind the Numbers non-member participation at Club races and events without Rein’s unwavering financial and business acumen is inspired by impacting Club finances. sources more modest than his successful career with General Electric and in venture capital, and his graduate degree from the Rein joined the Club in 1991 and, besides maintaining his role University of Virginia Darden School of Business. as Foundation treasurer, also serves on committees focused on finance, investment, long-range planning and membership. Above his desk, in each of his offices at work over his career and now at his home office, Rein has mounted his life motto, a The long-range planning skills Rein has brought to bear on quote from early 20th century presidential adviser and educator Foundation financial matters are the same ones he has employed Booker T. Washington: “An ounce of application is worth a ton on all Club financial practices. of abstraction.”

“Harry brought the financial management of the Club into It’s a no-frills statement as straightforward as the descriptions of the modern era in an extremely disciplined way,” says past Rein supplied by both his fellow Club members and Foundation Commodore David Elwell, with whom Rein worked when he colleagues. was Club treasurer. “He’s been the steady hand on the tiller for the Club, serving in times of prosperity and financial crisis. He’s One version of the motto is a needlepoint of the quote, brought an even higher level of financial discipline and reporting made and framed by his wife, Susan. She shares details of her into the Club that has been very beneficial.” husband’s voyage from his days as the son of a medical doctor in the Holland Park neighborhood of New Jersey, with summers on Club business has become more complex over the last several Barnegat Bay, to boater, sailor, community , member, decades, due to the acquisition of Harbour Court, repairs at and leader of yacht clubs. 44th Street, ongoing renovations at both sites, construction of the Sailing Center and the increase in high-level regattas, Club Early in their marriage, while on vacation at Wrightsville Beach, boats, family racing and other events. North Carolina, Rein took it upon himself to learn how to DAN NERNEY DAN

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Rein races Serendipity, the Alerion (hull No. 2) he’s owned since 1994, on Nantucket, where he’s a member of the Nantucket Yacht Club and president of the Alerion one-design class.

sail, aboard a Sunfish, while surrounded by the working fleet wherever the family has resided, he becomes deeply involved in of shrimp boats. The couple later made the new interest stick nonprofit work. by taking a course with the top-rated Steve and Doris Colgate Offshore Sailing School. “At our Lamaze childbirth class, he sat beside one of the top medical doctors at the Cleveland Clinic,” Susan recalls. “Their In 1979, General Electric transferred the Reins to Cleveland, desire to exit the class—which they did—started a long personal Ohio. They bought a Tartan 30 sloop, Flapdragon, and cruised friendship between both families and Harry’s involvement with on Lake Erie with their baby son and toddler daughter. Over the the Cleveland Clinic.” years, four other boats have followed, power and sail. Now, when they’re not cruising Alacrity, a Grand Banks Eastbay Since then, Rein has remained a dedicated volunteer with the cruiser, Rein races Serendipity, the Alerion (hull No. 2) he’s owned renowned Cleveland Clinic hospital—a sum of 20 years—serving since 1994. He’s a member of the Nantucket Yacht Club, where on the finance and research and education committees of the he’s president of the Alerion one-design class. A five-year board board of directors. member of Nantucket Community Sailing, Rein is in the second year of his term as its president. He’s also a longtime member Over the years, Rein has also served on a dozen community of the Norwalk Yacht Club, where he served as commodore. boards. In New Canaan, Conn., where the Reins live when not In Newport, Rein is also a longtime board member of the IYRS on Nantucket or in Florida, he is currently the chairman of School of Technology & Trades and the Classic Yacht Owners the Waverny Care Center and a trustee of the Congregational Association. Church.

Yet his interests reach far beyond financial matters and yachting. “On the exterior, Harry can be a bit formidable,” Elwell says. According to Townsend, Rein plays a mean game of golf. And “On the interior, he’s one of the warmest people you’d ever meet in the world. He’s helped out legions of people, connecting them with the world-class health care at the Cleveland Clinic. Visit www.nyycfoundation.org to make a charitable contribution Sometimes I call and say, ‘I have a friend who has a problem. Can and to learn more about the historic buildings of the New York you give a reference at the Clinic?’ Every time, he jumps on it, Yacht Club. Your support is crucial in preserving our past and even if he doesn’t know the person. He’s that kind of a guy.” safeguarding our future.

COURTESY OF THE REIN FAMILY COURTESY

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