He was born Jacob Moses Borgenicht to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York.
He dropped out of college during the Great Depression to help the family clothing manufacturing company Borgenicht and Spiro.
On March 26, 1954, he married Peri Gilbert Borgenicht Winkler, stockbroker, literary agent; they divorced in 1964.
On his death, he arranged to make multi-million dollar charitable donations to the College of William and Mary to fund the Foundation for Aging Studies and Exercise Science Research and a Hypoxia/Altitude Physiology Research Facility[10][11] Five years after his death, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and its partners, including the Morris County Open Space Trust Fund, bought his 228-acre estate in Long Valley, New Jersey for $2.8 million for open space preservation.
[12][13] Borgenicht has stated that The Anatomy of Peace by Emery Reves expresses his philosophy best.