H. Irwin Levy

The lifelong work ethic and dedication to the Jewish community that underlies the accomplishments of H. Irwin Levy began in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was born on June 23, 1926, to Jacob and Mary Feuerman Levy. Throughout his youth, Irwin loved working at his father’s side at the wholesale shoe business started by his immigrant grandfather Benjamin Levy. Here he absorbed business acumen. Irwin, along with his four brothers, also learned from his father a deep concern for all elements of the Jewish community, lessons that would shape his life.

Graduating from high school during World War II, Irwin served in the Army Air Corps in Florida, where his skill with a slide rule made him invaluable in calculating safe cargo loads. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Pennsylvania State University while working part-time. At his mother’s suggestion, he attended Cornell Law School for two years, then married Jeanne Siskin of Elmira, New York. Honeymooning in Miami, Irwin was smitten with Florida and finished his Juris Doctor at the University of Miami.

The Levys settled in West Palm Beach, where Irwin opened a law office in 1951 in the Citizens Building on Clematis Street. He was in and out of the same courthouse that was later restored to its 1916 form and became home to the Historical Society of Palm Beach County and the Johnson History Museum. With the influx of a growing population, Irwin became known for introducing clients who wanted to buy or sell real estate, in creative win-win deals. The couple had two children: daughter Lynn Peseckis, is a geophysicist, and son Mark, is an attorney who has enjoyed working alongside his father for 31 years. Happily, both of his children live locally and each has provided him with two grandchildren to whom Irwin has passed on the valuable lessons learned from his family.

Meanwhile, Irwin applied his father’s lessons in the growing local Jewish community. Beginning in the 1960s, the Levys were key in establishing Temple Israel and the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, Jewish Community Day School, Jewish Community Center, Joseph L. Morse Geriatric Center, Jewish Family and Children’s Service, and the Jeanne and Irwin Levy Day Care Center in Israel.

Seeing another kind of need—and opportunity— in the growing Jewish community, Irwin decided to invest his own money in real estate development. He knew land values would only rise with the growing popularity of South Florida real estate. Having grown up a hundred miles from the Catskills, Irwin also knew that many retired people spent the warmest months enjoying the cool mountain air at resorts with entertainment. He would create the same setting in South Florida in a place to live year-round, with recreation, entertainment, and services the Jewish community needed. He would call this new kind of lifestyle Century Village.

The marketing was as creative as the product itself. Irwin hired comedian Red Buttons, a Catskills favorite, to draw crowds. He opened a sales office in Miami Beach and bused people to West Palm Beach, opening a Holiday Inn at the Turnpike exchange for their comfort. The first Century Village units sold at $9,000 to $13,000, but they would quickly gain value.

Irwin was a hands-on developer, from designing the project to seeking residents’ feedback over lunch or in the on-site auditorium. He paid his children minimum wage to help out in the summer, passing on his work ethic. Great success in West Palm Beach led to Century Villages in Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, and Pembroke Pines, and the purchase of an existing project in Coconut Creek that Irwin renamed Wynmoor Village. His Cenvill Communities became the largest builder of condominiums in the U.S. with 1,500 employees in 1980. Although he sold Cenvill in 1985, Irwin returned in 1992 when he saw his legacy in decline. He sold the Century Village name five years later, but Cenvill Recreation still operates the recreational facilities and quasimunicipal operations.

Since removing his developer hat, Irwin has been generous with both leadership and finances for the Jewish community and cultural organizations. He helped found the Palm Beach Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Among the many honors he has received, he might be most proud of the Scopus Award from Hebrew University, which recognized the $1.5 billion in U.S. grants that Irwin secured to relocate Russian and Ethiopian Jews to Israel as chair of United Israel Appeal’s Government Relations Committee.

Mutual friends David and Sondra Mack introduced Irwin and Ellen Zavell Schwartz. According to Irwin, “there was chemistry there.” They were married on August 25, 1994, at the St. Regis in New York. They honeymooned in Sardinia and continue to travel far and wide, sometimes with their entire blended family.

All photographs courtesy H. Irwin Levy and Mark Levy.