A tribute to Henry Z. Steinway.(In memoriam)

Henry Z. Steinway, a 2007 MTNA Achievement Award recipient and the last Steinway to run the piano-making company his family started in 1853, has died. He was 93.

"Henry Steinway was a visionary businessman, a passionate lover of the arts and an eloquent advocate for music in everyone's life," says Gary Ingle, MTNA Executive Director/CEO. "He was a great friend and a truly remarkable man."

Henry Ziegler Steinway was the great-grandson of Heinrich Engelhard Steinway, the founder of Steinway & Sons. Henry graduated from Harvard with a degree in history. But in 1937, he joined the family business and began an apprenticeship as a laborer.

In the 1940s, following the death of a cousin who had been the company's general manager, Steinway began overseeing operations at the company's three factories in Queens, New York. World War II interrupted Steinway's management career while he served in the military. After the war he became the factory manager. Steinway became president of the company in 1955.

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In 1972, he sold the company in a $20.1 million stock swap with the CBS Corporation. CBS replaced him as president in 1977, naming him chairman. He gave up that title when he retired at 65. And although Steinway & ...