Personal Life
In 1955, Lerner married his wife Norma. They were married for 47 years and had two children, business executive Randy Lerner, and Nancy.
He was extremely private and shunned the limelight.
He was proud of being a U.S. Marine and flew a Marine Corps flag atop the stadium during the entire time he owned the Browns. Additionally, he flew the Cleveland Browns football team flag at all MBNA America corporate sites along with the American flag and State flags.
Cleveland native and fellow marine Drew Carey paid tribute to Lerner at the end of a season 8 episode of The Drew Carey Show called "The Dawn Patrol."
Lerner was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2001 and that May underwent surgery, spending most of his last year in and out of hospitals. He died on October 2, 2002.
Read more about this topic: Al Lerner
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“He hadn’t known me fifteen minutes, and yet he was ... ready to talk ... I was still to learn that Munshin, like many people from the capital, could talk openly about his personal life while remaining a dream of espionage in his business operations.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Undershaft: Alcohol is a very necessary article. It heals the sick—Barbara: It does nothing of the sort. Undershaft: Well, it assists the doctor: that is perhaps a less questionable way of putting it. It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)