Laurans A. “Larry” Mendelson ’60, BUS’61, Trustee Emeritus, HEICO Executive Chairman of the Board

Laurans A. “Larry” Mendelson ’60, BUS’61, executive chairman of the board of HEICO Corp., Columbia trustee emeritus, entrepreneur and philanthropist, died on Sept. 27, 2025, in Miami. He was 87.

In addition to serving as a trustee from 1995 to 2001, Mendelson was on the Alumni Advisory Board to the Trustees, the Columbia College Board of Visitors and on the committees of two Columbia fundraising campaigns.

Born on the Upper West Side to Blanche and Samuel CC 1906, Mendelson attended public schools, including Brooklyn Technical H.S., before attending the College on a Regents Scholarship. After earning an M.B.A. in 1961, he served in the Army and the Army Reserves.

Mendelson was a CPA at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen for six years before starting his own Wall Street business to help small companies with great potential to go public, and founding a publicly held pollution control company, which he later sold.

Mendelson and his wife, Arlene, moved to Miami in early 1969, as the area’s explosive growth was commencing; he founded another publicly held company, which he also later sold, that acquired small industrial and real estate businesses. In 1972, he entered the real estate development industry with a business partner, Jerry A. Gross. Together, the two developed condominiums, apartments, shopping centers and hotels around Florida, eventually becoming the largest condominium converters in the state, as well as major investors in large publicly held industrial companies. Gross died in 1988; Mendelson remained active in Florida real estate with his family until his death.

Mendelson and his sons, Eric ’87, BUS’89 and Victor ’89, took over HEICO Corp.’s management in 1990 after becoming the company’s largest shareholders. HEICO was then a small, troubled aviation products company with $26 million in net revenues and a similar market capitalization. The Mendelsons transformed HEICO into one of the world’s largest and most respected aerospace and defense companies, designing and manufacturing tens of thousands of components found on nearly every commercial airliner and business jet currently in use, along with many defense and space platforms used by the United States and its allies.

Mendelson served as HEICO’s Board of Directors chairman and CEO from 1990 until early 2025, when he became executive chairman and Eric and Victor became co-CEOs. He was also the company’s president from 1990 to 2009, when his sons succeeded him.

As committed philanthropists, Mendelson and his wife supported numerous organizations in South Florida and elsewhere, including Baptist Health South Florida, Florida Grand Opera, Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Miami’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami’s Perez Art Museum, Ransom-Everglades School, South Florida PBS, United Way of Miami-Dade and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. For more than 30 years Mendelson served on the Board of Directors of Miami Mt. Sinai Medical Center, including as board chairman.

In 2016, Columbia’s Mendelson Center for Undergraduate Business Initiatives was established with a gift from the Mendelson family; Mendelson and his wife endowed the Laurans A. and Arlene Mendelson Professorship in Economics and Business and established the Samuel and Blanche Mendelson Memorial Scholarship Fund, which provides financial aid to College students from South Florida. The family also created the Mendelson Family Professorship in American Studies.

Among his many awards and recognitions, Mendelson was named a Chevalier in France’s Legion d’Honneur and a Living Legend of Aviation Kenn Ricci Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur; he was presented the Howard Hughes Memorial Award for advancing aerospace technology, the Greater Miami Aviation Association Wright Brothers Memorial Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Florida. He also received a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement from the College in 1984.

Mendelson is survived by Arlene, his wife of 63 years; sons, Eric (Kimberly) and Victor (Lisa); grandchildren, Daniel, Hayley Smith ’17 (Colm ’16), Lindsey Pearson ’18 (Ryan), David ’18, BUS’19, Nicole ’20 and Alexander ’23, LAW’27; and a great-grandson, Luke Smith.