Paul Schwartz

Paul Schwartz, a lighting industry executive whose pioneering adoption of LED technology led him to contribute lighting at Yankee Stadium, the Empire State Building and other New York landmarks, died on Aug. 2 in West Orange, N.J. He was 81.

Mr. Schwartz, a devoted husband and father who raised his family in Livingston and spent nearly a half century in New Jersey, passed away peacefully at his home in Bel Air at West Orange. He moved there in 2016, after retiring from a decades-long career in the lighting business.

As a marketing executive to the industry, he sold commercial lighting, was the president of a marketing association and frequently received Salesman of the Year awards for the companies he represented. Earlier in his career, he founded his own lighting manufacturing factory, known as Benchmark Products, in Elizabeth, N.J.

But it was his early adaptation to LED lighting that ultimately defined his career. In the early 2000s, sensing that the lighting industry was undergoing upheaval, Mr. Schwartz embraced the light-emitting diode technology. And soon, he landed a variety of prominent projects in New York.

“He didn’t just light up our world, he lit up the world,” one of his daughters, Amanda Protess, said in her eulogy.

But he lived for his family, she added. When his children were young, Mr. Schwartz coached his other daughter, Kimberly, in softball, took Amanda on nature walks and chaperoned their school trips. He later doted on his grandchildren, Harry and Lorelei Protess, frequenting their school events and extracurricular activities. He attended his granddaughter’s dance recitals and nearly every baseball game that his grandson played, cheering from the dugout fence.

He and his wife, Cynthia Schwartz, traveled the world together, visiting over 30 countries and most of the United States, experiences that inspired a passion for photography.

Mr. Schwartz, family members recalled, was also an irrepressible presence who greeted strangers as good friends and distant relatives as close ones.

“That’s my very good friend,” he would say of someone he had just met in passing.

To loved ones, he would offer comfort: “It will evolve,” he would say, often adding, with a chuckle, “Man plans, God smiles.”

Jerrold Paul Schwartz was born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the son of Louis, an attorney, and Rose, an administrative assistant at the New York City Housing Authority. The youngest child in a family of three boys, he was raised in Brooklyn as well as in Hollis Hills, Queens. He spent summers at Old Orchard Beach in Maine with his mother’s extended family.

Mr. Schwartz attended New York University, where he was a member of the Phi Epsilon Phi fraternity and received his bachelor’s degree from the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance. After attending graduate school, he moved to Springfield, Mass., where he met Cynthia Greenberg, a school teacher.

They married in 1970 and lived in Boston for three years, before moving to Queens, and then Livingston, where they raised their family.

He was an athlete, running marathons and playing tennis and golf. For more than a decade, Mr. Schwartz and his family vacationed at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort, where he was an avid skier and served as a Trustee of the Mountainside Condominium Association. More recently, he served on the Board at Bel Air. In retirement, he became a prolific and skilled photographer, documenting pastoral scenes throughout New Jersey and architectural marvels around the world.

Friends and family recalled Mr. Schwartz’s sense of humor – and playful spirit. He would often burst into song, whether it be “I Could Have Danced All Night,” from “My Fair Lady,” or Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’s “Sherry.”

Mr. Schwartz was preceded in death by his brother Joel and his daughter Stephanie. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia (Greenberg) Schwartz; two daughters, Kimberly Schwartz and Amanda Protess (Schwartz); his son-in-law, Ben Protess and his grandchildren, Harry and Lorelei Protess.

Bernheim Apter Kreitzman handled the funeral arrangements. The service was held on Tuesday, August 6, at Mount Freedom Hebrew Cemetery in Randolph, N.J.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in his memory to Memorial Sloan Kettering.