William Goldberg
William Goldberg was born on Tiffany Street in the Bronx. By 1952 he was already buying and selling diamonds and decided to partner with diamond cutter Irving Weiss to form Goldberg & Weiss. The business did well and in 1954 they purchased Feldman & Rauch diamond cutting firm which had the contract to exclusively cut and supply diamonds for Van Cleef & Arpels in New York specifically for marquise and pear shaped stones. A year later he married Lili Gordon and starts a family not that long after. By 1967 he had established relationship with William Nelkin & Company to begin purchasing important rough stones. The business continued to grow and in 1973 the partnership dissolved where he created William Goldberg Diamond Corporation a step which helped him become a De Beers sightholder. Just two years later he purchased the 136.25 carat Queen of Holland. diamond. Business continued to move forward and industry peers recognized him as President of the Diamond Dealers Club. He also continues to work in large stones purchasing very large rough stones including a stone he cut into the Premier Rose. In 1980 the trapezoid-shaped Blue Lili, a 30.06 carat stone, is polished from a piece of South African rough and named after his wife Lili. In 1990 he moves his offices from the iconic 47th Street to a larger facility on Fifth Avenue. This is where Goldberg added a jewelry division and manufacturing operations. In 1998 Goldberg purchases an extremely rare red diamond rough and polishes it to become the 5.11 carat Red Shield (the largest graded by GIA at the time). Expanding the cutting practices and always looking to keep magic in the make the family patents the ASHOKA® diamond cut in 1999. In 2001 Goldberg purchases a 265.82 carat rough and cuts a 102.23 carat oval, which became the largest D Flawless oval-cut diamond in history. William Goldberg passed away in 2003.
