Commercial enterprise finds marked expression in the life record of Joseph Lesser, who is the proprietor of the Outlet Clothing Company of New Haven and of Bridgeport. He was born in Russia, January 22, 1884, a son of Morris and Sarah Lesser, both of whom are living in New York city. The family crossed the Atlantic in 1885, making their way to New York city, and in the metropolis Joseph Lesser was reared and educated, attending the public schools until he had passed through the grades and become a high school student. He began work as an office boy in a clothing factory and afterward secured the position of bookkeeper, thus steadily working his way upward. Later, when twenty-one years old, he established a factory for the manufacture of trousers and successfully continued in that business for six years. In 1911 he took over the Outlet Clothing Company, with stores in New Haven and in Bridgeport, and has since conducted both. They are thoroughly modern in appointment and equipment and the business has more than trebled under his management. In New Haven he employed two clerks at the outset but today has five salespeople in this store, a fact which indicates something of the rapid and substantial growth of his trade. He possesses to a marked degree that quality which for want of a better term has been called commercial sense. His judgment is keen and his sagacity has enabled him to readily discriminate between the essential and the non-essential in all matters relating to the trade.

  On the 16th of May, 1915, Mr. Lesser was united in marriage to Miss Frances Tunis, of Brooklyn, New York, and they have one child, J. Bernard, born March 6, 1916. Mr. Lesser is a Mason and loyally adheres to the teachings of the craft. He belongs to the George Street synagogue and he also has membership with the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith and the Independent Order of B’nai Abraham. He has displayed a ready adaptability, guided by a commendable ambition that has brought him steadily forward from a humble position to one of considerable importance in commercial circles.