Herbert S. Auerbach

Who was Herbert S. Auerbach?

Herbert S. Auerbach was a prominent Jewish businessman in Salt Lake City and also a member of the Utah House of Representatives.

Auerbach was born in Salt Lake City where his father ran a department store. At age 15 he went to Germany to study at J. J. Meier School in Wiesbaden, then Lausanne, Switzerland. He then went to Columbia University where he received a degree in metallurgy in 1906. He spent the next five years working with mines in Colorado, but from 1911 on spent his time running the family department store in Salt Lake City.

Auerbach also served as a member of the University of Utah board of regents, a major in the army during World War I and a member of the Utah State Legislature from 1925-1929.

Auerbach also pursued studies in Utah history and was a poet and song writer.

Although a Jew, his funeral was held at the Salt Lake Assembly Hall of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Frank W. Asper as organist and Jessie Evans Smith singing at least one solo.