Abraham E. Kazan (1889-1971)

Inducted: 1976

Considered the ‘father of U.S. cooperative housing’, A.E. Kazan became the first person in New York City’s history to have a street named for him in his lifetime. He earned this distinction for his role in helping to change the face of sections of New York City through cooperative housing. More than 100,000 people live in homes built by his efforts. Even more than that, he created cooperative communities with co-op markets, pharmacies, credit unions, optical centers and more – all designed to benefit people. He succeeded in federating the various co-op supermarkets in New York City to give them the muscle to compete against giant chains; he built co-op electric generating plants to bring down the price of power; and he developed cooperative computerized services to keep co-ops up to date in their record keeping.