Robert E. Zoellner, who with his wife founded Alpine Associates Advisors, a firm specializing in merger arbitrage, long and short equity trading and bankruptcy-related investments, has died. He was 82.

He died on Dec. 23, according to a statement e-mailed yesterday by Gary Koops, a spokesman for the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey-based company. No cause was given.

Alpine, which started in 1976, manages $1.7 billion in assets and its core arbitrage business has never had a losing year, according to its website. He ran the firm with his wife, Victoria Zoellner, a former Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. broker.

The couple contributed $6 million to build an arts center at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Lehigh University that opened in 1997. They were also founding sponsors of the annual December holiday model train show at the Bronx Botanical Garden in New York.

Robert Emil Zoellner was born on April 26, 1932, in Irvington, New Jersey, and grew up in East Paterson, now called Elmwood Park. His father, Emil John Zoellner, was an engineer who specialized in tool design; his mother, the former Anna Elizabeth Morton, owned and ran a diner.

After graduating from Lodi High School in 1950, he attended Lehigh, where he was co-captain of the ice hockey team and enrolled in Air Force ROTC. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1954, then served two years in the U.S. Air Force.

Joins Brokerage

Following military service, Zoellner founded the Wall Street firm E.J. Roberts, according to the statement. He then joined Hempstead, New York-based brokerage Edwards & Hanly, where he became managing partner in 1964.

In 1974, the New York Stock Exchange levied $26,000 in fines against Edwards & Hanly and two employees, including Ivan Boesky, for failing to deliver on settlement dates shares that were sold short, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a short sale, the seller sells stock he or she doesn’t own, speculating that the shares can be bought later at a lower price.

Zoellner, who was the firm’s chief executive officer at the time, denied the allegations.

“Our admission to facts and penalty was solely for the purpose of settling a pending proceeding,” he said, according to the Journal. “While we settled to avoid continuation of potentially protracted and expensive proceedings, we don’t believe we were guilty of any wrongdoing.”

First « 1 2 » Next