Industry Accountant Steven Merdinger Dies

By Rob Bates | November 19, 2025

Steven M. Merdinger, an accountant with many diamond and jewelry clients who was active in industry associations, died on Nov. 15. He was 71.

Merdinger began his career as a certified public accountant with Coopers & Lybrand. He later became managing partner of KMR, a New York City-based accounting firm, which was acquired by Sax, an accounting and advisory group, in 2022.

In addition to his many industry clients, Merdinger handled the books for the World Diamond Council (WDC) and Jewelers for Children.

“He was a great human being,” former WDC president Eli Izhakoff tells JCK. “He worked for the WDC for 13 years pro bono and paid all travel expenses from his own pocket. He considered the members of the industry as his family. This is a huge loss.”

Donovan Tomlinson, a longtime employee of Merdinger’s, remembers him as a “very brilliant and generous man.

“If you had any kind of issue, you could go to Steve and he would take time out and get it settled,” Tomlinson says. “He was always very generous and willing to give of his time and money.”

Merdinger was a former president and chair of the New York City chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (now Breakthrough T1D) and a member of the group’s international board of chancellors. He was also a founder of and adviser to the Georges Malaika Foundation, which runs a school for 252 girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Merdinger is survived by his daughter Blake, a sister, and two grandchildren.

His family asks that donations be made in Merdinger’s name to Breakthrough T1D.

(Photo courtesy of Sax)