Longtime attorney and civic leader Herbert Joseph Belgrad, who served as the first head of the Maryland Stadium Authority, died on Sunday, Apr. 6, while taking his regular morning walk route.
The Canton resident was 90.
Belgrad was born in Washington, D.C, to Harold S. Belgrad, a haberdasher, and Selma Gundersheimer Belgrad, a homemaker.
He attended Baltimore City College and Johns Hopkins University, the latter of which he graduated cum laude in 1956.
The following year, Belgrad earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois on a fellowship and a law degree from the University of Maryland in 1961 (where he was elected to the Order of the Coif).
Belgrad served as an assistant city solicitor from 1964 to 1968. He was a partner at the Tydings and Rosenberg law firm from 1968 until his retirement five years ago.
In addition, Belgrad served in many community service roles, including with The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, the Baltimore Board of Jewish Education, the Maryland State Ethics Commission, the Board of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation, the Bar Association of Baltimore City, the Maryland State Bar Association. and the American Bar Association.
Notably, he served as the first chairman of the board of directors of the Maryland Stadium Authority from 1986 to 1995. During that time, he negotiated the long-term lease between the authority and the Baltimore Orioles and developed the lease and financing package that was the prototype for the agreement with the Baltimore Ravens.
“Every time I walk into Camden Yards, I appreciate the opportunity I had to be a part of this field of dreams,” Belgrad told the Maryland Daily Record.
In a tribute on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros., Belgrad’s family wrote, “Herb lived by the mantra that you only get out of something what you are willing to put into it. From childhood through high school and college, his professional career as an attorney, his many volunteer positions with the Baltimore and Maryland Bar Associations and Maryland Stadium Authority, and most importantly his family — his work ethic was unwavering.”
Belgrad is survived by his wife of 65 years, Joanne Lott Belgrad, and their children, Steve, a financial professional in Seattle, Susie, founder of Access Opportunity, a college and career nonprofit organization in Boulder, Colorado, and Leslie, an oncology patient navigator and founder of Tides, a nonprofit grief program in State College, Pennsylvania.
He also is survived by grandchildren, Jillian Belgrad and Humberto Ochoa, Tim Belgrad, Annie Hayes, Jack Hayes, Hannah and Bailey Ishler, and Sarah Finton.
Services will be held at Sol Levinson’s Chapel, 8900 Reisterstown Road in Pikesville on Wednesday, Apr. 9, at 9:30 a.m. Interment will be at Beth Tfiloh Cemetery, 5800 Windsor Mill Road.
Contributions in Belgrad’s memory may be sent to Access Opportunity, 4845 Pearl East Circle, Suite 101, Boulder, Colorado 80301 or to Tides Inc., P.O. Box 1251, State College, Pennsylvania 16804.
The family will be in mourning at 2901 Boston Street, apt. #406, in Baltimore on Wednesday following the interment, with a service at 7 p.m., and on Thursday beginning at noon with a service at 7, and on Friday beginning at noon until 3 p.m. due to the Passover holiday.
“There was no more important bar leader for justice in the last half century in Maryland than Herb,” wrote Michael A. Millemann, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, who first met Belgrad in the early 1970s. “Above all, Herb was a model of how to balance an extremely successful and important professional life with an overarching commitment to and enjoyment of family. He was a wonderful man and had a wonderful life, and his work has benefitted and will benefit thousands of Marylanders for years to come.”
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