ABOUT US

Randy Fertel, a writer based in New York and New Orleans, is president of both the Fertel Foundation and the Ruth U. Fertel Foundation. He has taught English at Harvard, Tulane, LeMoyne College, and the University of New Orleans. He holds a PhD from Harvard where he received a student-voted teaching award. He specializes inthe literature of the Vietnam War. A former manager of Ruth's Chris Steak House in New Orleans, he remembers interrupting high school homework to make emergency bread runs. He also served as Director of Marketing for the national corporation. A lover of fine wines, fine food, and great cars, he has long dined out on the stories that make up his forthcoming book "The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steaks," the tale of two distinctive people -- his parents -- and their fascinating worlds. He is the son of Ruth Fertel, who found a New Orleans restaurant called Chris Steak House in the classified ads and from it built one of the largest steakhouse chains in the world, and Rodney Fertel, who raced horses, traveled the globe, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New Orleans on the platform of getting a gorilla for the zoo.

Bernadette Murray Fertel, has experience in all aspects of marketing and communications: from the corporate marketing side; within agencies, as an executive vice president of BBDO in New York; and in magazine publishing, as associate publisher for marketing and creative services for House and Garden and as a part of the launch team of Condé Nast Traveler. Based in New York, she is passionate about health care causes and citizens rights. The recipient of an un-related stem-cell transplant, she is a founder of DonorRevoluntion.org and is attempting to organize initiatives designed to draw attention to the cause of broadening the national adult stem-cell donor registry to save lives from more than 70+ blood cancers and auto-immune diseases. She has battled a rare, aggressive form of Leukemia (an incurable form of AML -- without transplant), survived an unmatched donor transplant, numerous life-threatening infections and estrogen-positive breast cancer. (Leukemia patients have a higher propensity to develop additional cancers.) She wants to advocate for those patients who have been limited by their former abilities because of the treatments and diseases they have endured. Ms. Murray continues to be treated for issues related to the aggressive, albeit life-saving, treatment she has received, which leaves her capabilities diminished in the most unpredictable ways. This is often referred to as "Chemo Brain." Given her massive chemotherapies with all the treatments, she has endured more chemotherapy than the average cancer patient. She is grateful that cancer researchers now recognized the long-lasting effects of aggressive forms of chemotherapy and hopes that more research and patient care solutions will be developed to help cancer survivors become more productive members of society.

The Wedding of Bernadette and Randy
Vows Column, The New York Times March 18, 2007

THE chatter among the 175 guests gathered under the live oaks of Audubon Park in New Orleans for the wedding of Bernadette Murray and Randy Fertel was upbeat but also circumspect. They gushed about the setting and marveled about the beauty of the bride. And barely a word about the tough times the couple had just been through.
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