On March 28, 2019, Henry Jordan Stern died in Manhattan, the city where he had been born eighty-three years earlier and where he spent his career as a politician.

Born on May 1, 1935, in Manhattan, Stern grew up to attend the Bronx High School of Science before going on to the City College of New York. He later studied law at Harvard Law School, completing an educational path that moved from the public schools of New York City to one of the country's most prominent law programs. As a United States citizen working in the city that shaped him, he went on to build a career in politics.

Stern worked as a politician in New York, remaining connected throughout his life to the place where he was born and where he ultimately died in March 2019. His education at institutions ranging from the Bronx High School of Science to Harvard Law School reflected a trajectory that took him from the city's public school system through higher education before his entry into public life. He passed away in Manhattan, the borough that had been the setting for both the beginning and the end of his life.