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Bob Strudler, Chairman at Lennar, Dies at 64
 Bob Strudler, chairman of the Lennar Corporation and a 2000 National Housing Hall of Fame inductee, died on Nov. 7. He was 64.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and raised in Ellenville, N.Y., Strudler showed the strength and determination that would be hallmarks of his adult life when he defeated polio as a child. He earned undergraduate and law degrees in the New York area before practicing law in Manhattan and then entering the building industry.
In 1972, Strudler joined US Home as vice chairman of acquisitions. He rose through the company’s ranks, helping build US Home into one of the nation's largest and most successful home builders. He served as the company’s chairman and CEO beginning in 1986.
In 2000, Strudler helped oversee US Home's acquisition by the Lennar Corporation. Following the acquisition, he became Lennar’s COO. Five years later, he was named chairman at Lennar.
Within NAHB, Strudler helped found the High Production Home Builders Council and served as its chairman from 1991 to 1994. He was also a frequent guest speaker at NAHB and other industry-related meetings, events and conferences and earned numerous industry awards.
“Bob was a giant in the housing industry for more than four decades, serving as CEO of the nation’s top home building company and giving his time and energies generously to the national association and NAHB’s High Production Home Builders Council, which he helped create in 1991,” said Jerry Howard, NAHB executive vice president and CEO. “He will be sorely missed.”
Strudler was dedicated to improving the lives of others, and outside the industry, he worked tirelessly on many philanthropic causes. He founded the School for Young Children in Houston, a school for students with learning disabilities, and served as its president and treasurer. He endowed the Strudler Family Endowed Scholarship for the School of Education at University of St. Thomas.
Along with his brother-in-law, he helped found the Institute for Living Judaism in Brooklyn. He founded Project Opportunity, where Special Olympians helped build homes through Habitat for Humanity. He also created Lennar Success University, partnering Lennar employees and Special Olympians to learn life and work skills.
His most recent charitable work has been to create a diagnostic center for children with special needs. The center will open in 2007.
He is survived by Ruth, his wife of 41 years; children Seth, CJ and Keith and Keith’s wife, Andra; brothers Paul and Lewis and his sisters-in-law Diane and Melanie; and brother-in-law and sister-in-law Howard and Joanne Honigman.
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