Engel Burman founder, Sydney Engel, 98, dies

Sydney Engel, founder of Engel Burman, has died. He was 98. 

Expanding his business through a reputation for hard work, efficiency, and performance, Engel grew his area of expertise from insulation, to include roofing, siding, and oil burner conversions. Lending institutions so heavily depended on Engel to improve properties, they began to refer business to the company, requiring, at one point, 15 salesman to work from Sydney’s Brooklyn basement office/apartment to handle the orders.

As Engel’s business evolved, New York families such as the Rockefellers and Mellons engaged his company based on Sydney’s reputationas a general contractor who delivered what he promised. As a result, he was often made a partner in development projects under his construction supervision.

Together with his first non-family partner, Sol Henkind, Engel would further expand his business over the next 50 years, building nursing homes, office buildings, and thousands of rental units throughout the New York – New Jersey metro area. 

By 1997, at the age of 74, Sydney decided it was time to seek new challenges and expand his business activities even further. In that year, he welcomed Jan Burman as a partner in a new company, Engel Burman. Before his passing, Sydney Engel was the partner in charge, supervising millions of square feet of new construction..

Mr. Engel founded a not-for-profit hospital in Jamaica, Mo Bay Hope, where he oversaw its construction. He was awarded the honor of Commander by the Jamaican government for his charitable efforts that touched the lives of many on the island.

“In his nearly one hundred years of life, Sydney Engel charted a course from poverty to philanthropy, creating along the way an example of what can be accomplished by a man of integrity committed to hard work, high standards, and an insistence on excellence,” concluded his son-in-law, Michael Weiss.

He was born and lived in Brooklyn, NY., with his wife, Sylvia. He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.