The David J. Steinberg, Thomas R. Bell and Linda Creed Distinguished Endowed Scholarship
Establishment
Jeffrey Steinberg ’84 and The Steinberg Family Charitable Fund (the “Donor”) established this distinguished endowed scholarship in July 2023 with gifts totaling $103,241.92 (the “Scholarship”). The Scholarship was expanded in October 2025 to honor Thomas R. Bell, ahead of his November 2025 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and again in October 2026 to honor Linda Creed, ahead of her November 2026 induction.
Statement of Donor Intent
Jeffrey Steinberg graduated from Monmouth College in 1984 with a degree in Business Administration. At Monmouth he served as Sports Director of WMCX in his first two years and as General Manager in his last two. In 1981 he conducted the last interview with Bob Marley, weeks before Marley’s death, and was the first to report the news of Marley’s passing to the world on WMCX — a story featured in The Outlook on April 26, 2006, and in the Spring 2021 issue of Monmouth Magazine.
David J. Steinberg (1934–2021), Jeffrey’s father, was a Philadelphia entertainment attorney for more than sixty years. He began in the late 1950s with the founders of Cameo-Parkway Records, first as their attorney and then as house counsel, and drew up the contracts that signed teen idols Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell — Chubby’s the first he ever signed. In the 1970s his client list grew to include the people behind the Sound of Philadelphia: Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Thom Bell, Linda Creed, and Baker, Harris & Young. It also included The Spinners, The Trammps, Jimmy Cliff and, oh yes, the great Bob Marley. Through all of it he made sure his clients owned what they created: their songs, their publishing, their names.
The numbers tell the story. In total, David’s clients’ Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits are more than double those of any recording artist in all the years Billboard has kept the charts, from 1958 through 2018, the last full year before streaming changed the rules: 84, against Madonna’s 38 and the Beatles’ 34.
On Billboard’s Hot 100, R&B and Adult Contemporary charts, up to the streaming era, no songwriting and production team matched Gamble, Huff and Bell, the “Mighty Three.” Over any stretch of five to ten years, they scored more Top 10 hits and more No. 1 hits than any other writer/producer team in the history of the Billboard charts.
The most amazing list is the forty-one different artists who found their way to No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts (Billboard Hot 100, R&B and Adult Contemporary) with David’s clients at the helm.
David himself is directly connected to a Billboard No. 1 pop hit in six consecutive decades, from Elvis Presley’s “Teddy Bear” in 1957, the year before the Hot 100 began, to Akon’s “Don’t Matter” on the Hot 100 in 2007. He is one of only four people in the business with that streak, and the only attorney among them.
In the last week of December 1970, David sat across the table from Clive Davis, working out the CBS distribution agreement that launched Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International Records; it was signed and announced in January 1971. Several years later he placed his clients’ song “Disco Inferno” in a low-budget film about disco. The film was Saturday Night Fever. Its soundtrack is still the second-best-selling soundtrack album in history, and “Disco Inferno” earned a double royalty on it because of its extended running time. Late in the decade he set in motion the recordings that brought Elton John back: “Mama Can’t Buy You Love” returned Elton to the Top 10 on August 18, 1979, after 945 days out of the Top 20.
David’s practice reached well beyond Philadelphia. In 1975 he became personal attorney and confidant to Bob Marley, remained at his side until Marley’s death in 1981, and represented everything Marley — the estate, the companies, the family — until 1986. He also represented Jimmy Cliff, Rita Marley and the Melody Makers.
Thomas Randolph Bell (1943–2022) was a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame record producer, arranger and songwriter, and an architect of the Sound of Philadelphia. From 1972 to 1975, Thom had 28 Top 10 hits on Billboard’s pop, R&B and adult contemporary charts, and no wonder he received the “first ever” Grammy Award for Producer of the Year in 1975, over fellow nominee Stevie Wonder, and crafted hits for the Delfonics, the Stylistics, the Spinners, the O’Jays, Dionne Warwick, Deniece Williams, James Ingram and Elton John. Six of his R&B No. 1s were with the Spinners alone. Thom sent eight different artists to No. 1 — and 2Pac and the Fugees found their way there too, on records built from samples of his songs. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006, the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2016, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025, in the Musical Excellence category.
Linda Creed (1948–1986), a Philadelphia native, partnered with Bell for more than a decade as the lyricist on “Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart),” “You Are Everything,” “Betcha by Golly, Wow,” “I’m Stone in Love with You,” “People Make the World Go Round,” “Break Up to Make Up,” “Rockin’ Roll Baby,” “I’m Coming Home,” “You Make Me Feel Brand New,” “The Rubberband Man” and many others. In all, her songs reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s pop, R&B and adult contemporary charts 23 times, and 25 times counting the UK Singles Chart, for the Stylistics, the Spinners, Johnny Mathis and George Benson, and decades later for Mary J. Blige, Ja Rule and Ashanti, Usher, LeToya and Simply Red, who sampled or covered her songs. The greatest of them was “The Greatest Love of All,” which she wrote with composer Michael Masser and which Whitney Houston carried to No. 1 in 1986, five weeks after Creed’s death at 37; she had also written “Hold Me,” Houston’s very first hit. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2026, in the Musical Excellence category.
David Steinberg represented and guided Bell and Creed individually and as a writing team; the two of them once wrote him into a verse of “I’m Stone in Love with You.” Between them, the three gave more than 130 years to American music — David and Thom across six decades each, and Linda, whose sixteen-year career ended far too soon. The Scholarship honors the three of them together: the producer, the lyricist, and the attorney who championed their work and stood beside them throughout their careers — their encore.
The Scholarship supports undergraduate students pursuing a degree in Music with a concentration in Music Industry in the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, preferably students with a particular interest in entertainment law, music publishing, artist management and representation, record production, or songwriting.
Parameters
Selection
The recipient(s) and the distribution of funds will be determined by the Monmouth University Financial Aid Office.
Criteria
- Preference for a first- or second-year student pursuing a degree in Music with a concentration in Music Industry in the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences;
- The recipient must be a full-time undergraduate student;
- The recipient must have and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above;
- The Scholarship is renewable if these criteria continue to be met.
If no student meets the above criteria, the University will award the Scholarship to a Monmouth University student pursuing a degree in Music within the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences who has a GPA of 3.0 or above.
Use of Funds
Terms
If at a future time the University finds itself unable to administer the Scholarship exactly as stated in this agreement, it may revise the agreement in such a way that makes it an administrable scholarship while maintaining, as closely as possible, the Donor’s original intent. The University will inform the Donor each year of the recipient(s) and the amount awarded.
Endowment Spending and Management Policy
The funds will be managed by Monmouth University in accordance with the University’s policies and procedures. The funds available to be awarded each year are subject to the Monmouth University Board of Trustees endowment spending policy. The Scholarship may cover all or part of tuition and may also provide support for books, fees and other educational expenses.
In Testimony Whereof
Trustee, The Steinberg Family Charitable Fund
Acting Vice President, University Advancement
Monmouth University
