Pierre Andrew Rinfret
Pierre Andre "Pete" Rinfret (
Biography
Rinfret was born in Montreal, Canada. His father and the entire family emigrated to the United States from Canada on November 12, 1929.
"We emigrated here because my father had gone bankrupt in his fur business. In Canada that was the ultimate disgrace and he was forced out, socially. He did not know a depression was coming in the U.S. and no one else did either. And so he thought he would have a new start. Little did he know what was ahead. He and all of us had gone from the frying pan into the fire!"
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Working in the finance industry, he rose to become chairman of
He considered himself a professional financial analyst, first and foremost.
"I am the most proud of ... my 45 years of being a professional analyst of the U.S. and the world. I was always an iconoclast, an icon breaker. I never was afraid to think for myself. More often than not I went against the trend and the accepted wisdom. It got me into trouble quite frequently but my entire career was built on it ..."
1990 Run for Governor of New York
The Manhattan millionaire—by now styling himself as "Pete" Rinfret—agreed to become the Republican candidate in the
Pierre considered his run for governor as a moral victory.
"Mario Cuomo was mentioned frequently as a possible Presidential candidate, but after the run against us all that talk died since he won the election with a bare majority. We knocked him out of the Presidential box and out of NY politics. He beat two rank amateurs by the skin of his teeth! Few in the state realized the dire financial and economic condition of the state until my campaign. The very first budget that Mario Cuomo presented to the Legislature after he beat me was almost identical to the one I had proposed and, as the Albany commentators said, "You elect Mario and you get Pierre's budget"
next electionon some of the very grounds I had initiated, the deterioration in the state.The new head of the Republican party in New York said right after the election "We owe Pierre". Mario Cuomo said to my son Peter about a year ago and I quote, "Your father was far more perceptive than I was"."
Post 1990
He qualified as a pilot in 2000, at age 76, and died in 2006 at age 82.
He had posted his recollections and impressions of people he had known from politics and business on a web site during his retirement, and carried on a significant online correspondence with people from over twenty countries until just a few months before this death. He was attempting to create an 'online memoir' of his life and experiences, from growing up in the Great Depression, to working with economists such as Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan.
"I first met Alan Greenspan in 1948 when I attended the New York University School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance. At that time I was a junior in my studies and Alan was a sophomore. I was the Senior Fellow in the Economics department and he wanted to get a fellowship in the Department. ... "
1990 NYS Republican ticket
- Governor: Pierre Rinfret
- Lieutenant Governor: George Yancey
- Comptroller: Edward Regan
- Attorney General: Bernard C. Smith