Jerome “Jerry” Kern, the former CEO of the Colorado Symphony who helped turn the organization around from financial troubles, has died. He was 87.

Kern was a prominent telecommunications lawyer and business leader in the Denver area. His death was announced Monday by New York University Law Dean Troy McKenzie.

Kern was an alumni of NYU, a managing editor of the NYU Law Review and helped relaunch their Root-Tilden Scholarship program in 1998, which was later renamed the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship.

His cause of death was not disclosed. He died Friday, according to Denver-based funeral home Monarch Society’s website.

“We mourn the loss of a remarkable leader and benefactor whose legacy will inspire generations,” McKenzie said in the announcement.

The Colorado Symphony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kern played a part in some of the biggest deals in the broadcasting and telecommunications industry. He was vice chairman of the Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) board of directors and was the architect of the AT&T and TCI merger. He also played a part in the Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting merger.

Kern began working with the Colorado Symphony with his wife Dr. Mary Rossick Kern in the late 1990s as community trustees. Throughout the 2000s, they helped launch the Symphony on the Rocks concert series at Red Rocks Amphitheater and the organization’s most popular fundraiser, the Colorado Symphony Ball.

The Colorado Symphony Association reached out to the Kerns after the organization’s financial troubles led to a partially-cancelled 2011-2012 season. The couple were co-chairs of the symphony’s board of trustees before Kern became CEO and chairman of the board in 2016.

When he stepped down in 2021, Kern said, “This is the perfect moment for my retirement because I’m leaving the symphony in the strongest financial position it has ever achieved.”

His successor, Mark Cantrell, was named in 2023. Cantrell was the former CEO of The Florida Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.