ELMER G. LETERMAN (January 16, 1897 - December 1982) was a lexicographer, author, and founder of Elmer G. Leterman Company and The Leterman-Gortz Corporation.
He was born in 1897 ...view moreELMER G. LETERMAN (January 16, 1897 - December 1982) was a lexicographer, author, and founder of Elmer G. Leterman Company and The Leterman-Gortz Corporation.
He was born in 1897 in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Jack J. Leterman, who owned and operated a department store, and Bertie (Goldsmith) Leterman. He left grammar school at the age of thirteen and became “self-educated.” He married Blanche Copeland on December 17, 1950.
Leterman was a partner in the insurance brokerage firm of Stebbins, Leterman & Gates, which specialized in group coverage, in New York City from 1925-1936. In 1935, he launched his own insurance brokerage firm, Elmer G. Leterman & Co., Inc., also headquartered in New York City. In 1949, he started a second firm called The Elmer G. Leterman Company. In 1959, a new insurance brokerage company called The Leterman-Gortz Corporation was formed. All of Mr Leterman’s companies eventually merged into Leterman-Gortz.
In addition to his highly successful career as an insurance broker, Leterman was the author of a number of best-selling books, including The Sale Begins When the Customer Says No (1953); Personal Power through Creative Selling (1955); The New Art of Selling (1957); Sales Management (1965); How Showmanship Sells (1965); They Dare to Be Different (with Thomas W. Carlin, 1968); and Elmer Leterman’s Book of Useful Quotations (1972).
He was a member of the Newcomen Society and Lone Star Boat Club.
He passed away in 1982, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.view less