Joseph J Aresty

Aresty, former chief executive officer of Alfred Dunner, died Tuesday of complications from a stroke at his Mamaroneck home, according to his son Peter, the company’s long-standing president. Joseph Aresty was one of nine children born in Rochester, N.Y., to Juda Joseph and Emma Nahmias Aresty, who had emigrated from Monastir. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School, Joseph Aresty went on to earn a degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1943. As a U.S. Army Air Corps staff sergeant in England during World War II, he flew on reconnaissance missions in the European theater. Aresty started his retail career at L. Bamberger & Co. in Newark, N.J. Not long after that, he was transferred to its parent company, R.H. Macy & Co. in the Herald Square location. At that time, Aresty was a buyer for a number of ladies’ and men’s apparel products before becoming vice president of men’s accessories. It was at the West 34th Street base that he first met his wife Catherine “Kitty” Fortuin Aresty, who worked there as fashion coordinator. After living in Greenwich, Conn., for a stint, the couple put down roots in Rye to raise him and their other son, Steven. About 35 years ago, the couple relocated to Mamaroneck. In 1962, Joseph Aresty joined Alfred Dunner Inc. In the Sixties, he persuaded his two brothers, Gerald and Jerome, to join him at the company. Together, they built Alfred Dunner into one of the largest privately owned apparel manufacturers in the U.S. After retiring in 1995, Aresty and his wife founded the Catherine and Joseph Aresty Foundation with an emphasis of charitable outreach geared toward education. The former apparel executive underwrote and established the Aresty Institute of Executive Education at Wharton. He served on Wharton’s board of overseers and was the first recipient of the Wharton school’s dean’s medal. In addition to his wife, Aresty is survived by his sons Peter and Steven.