Edgar Bloom Stern Sr. (1886–1959) was an American leader in civic, racial, business and governmental affairs for the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Stern was an organizer of Dillard University, Flint Goodridge Hospital, and the Bureau for Governmental Research.

Stern's family home, Longue Vue House and Gardens, is now a museum open to the public.

[2] For his family's affluence, Edgar Stern traveled frequently, became involved in charitable works, and became active in Temple Sinai synagogue, all beginning in early childhood.

[5] Stern was a trustee of the Julius Rosenwald Fund and of the Tuskegee Institute, in addition to being a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

[9] Author Gerda Weissmann Klein published a list of business and civic positions that Stern held as of 1953.

[10] Stern's involvement with Dillard University and Flint-Goodridge Hospital began with a solicitation in 1928 by Edwin R. Embree, then president of the Rosenwald Fund, concerning the educational and health care needs of African-Americans in the city of New Orleans.

[4] As board member, Stern addressed several critical issues facing the newly formed Dillard University, including financial matters, navigating the distinctly different cultures of the two parent colleges, appointing effective administrators, and developing a suitable physical plant, including a new campus.

Alexander was the southern white director of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, whom Stern viewed as being able to navigate the complex racial relations of white-dominated New Orleans and the factionalism that persisted from the two universities from which Dillard was formed.

In 1936, Stern and the board of trustees, therefore, replaced Alexander with William Stuart Nelson, the university's first full-time and first African-American president.

His books included criticisms of the political establishment and the legal profession, and he wrote treatises on poverty.

She served as a trustee to the John F. Kennedy Library and held board memberships at the Eleanor Roosevelt Foundation and the Osborne Association.

With Edgar Sr, he founded WDSU-TV, the first commercial television station in the Gulf Coast region of the United States.

Through his Royal Street Corporation, Edgar Jr pursued real estate developments, especially in New Orleans and Aspen, Colorado.

[18] For his merits early in his career, Edgar Bloom Stern Sr. was invited to join the exclusive Boston Club of New Orleans, despite its reputation at the time for antisemitism.

Stern continued to prosper in New Orleans business circles even though he was excluded from much of the city's society because of the widespread antisemitism of the time.

[1] In 1931 the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper presented Stern with its Loving Cup Award for his service in founding Dillard University.

[11] Government, civic, and religious leaders gathered in New Orleans in 1953 to recognize Stern's philanthropic accomplishments.