Steinbrenner, George M. III George Steinbrenner, full name George Martin Steinbrenner III, was born on July 4, 1930 in Rocky River, Ohio, and died on July 13, 2010 in Tampa, Florida. He was an American businessman and the major owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 until 2010. Prior to that, he ran the family business, which owned a shipping company. He graduated from Harvard University in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in economics. After graduating, he worked for several years at the family business, which at that time was called Steinway & Sons. In 1960, he joined the Yankees as an assistant to the president. A year later, he became president of the team's new holding company, which owned most of the Yankees' assets. In 1973, when his father died, he took over the daily operations of the team as well. Since then, he has been referred to as "the mayor of Manhattan" because of his influence on New York City sports. Besides being owner of the Yankees, he also served as chairman of the board of trustees for Harvard University from 1990 to 2010. Additionally, he chaired two committees that made recommendations on baseball rules changes - one in 1995 and another in 2009. The latter committee proposed a change to reduce home run rates which was adopted by Major League Baseball in 2010.