Robert B. Stearns

Robert B. Stearns (1888-1954) was a prominent American financier. He co-founded investment bank Bear Stearns in 1923.

Stearns was born in 1888 to Issac Stern, founder of Stern's Department Stores, and Virginia Michaels Stern. He graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover in 1906 and Yale University in 1910. He may have changed his named when he enrolled at Andover, whose headmaster at the time was Alfred Stearns.

After working some years in Europe, Stearns worked at the brokerage J.J. Danzig & Co. before founding Bear Stearns in 1923. He became a member of the New York Curb Exchange, later the American Stock Exchange in 1929, and would eventually be its chairman.

Stearns died at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan on 14 December 1954, aged 66. He was survived by his second wife, Margaret Allen and three children by his marriage to Bernice Marks, which ended in divorce.