A fourth-generation Charlestonian, Maier Triest grew up in a large house in the heart of Charleston, near the old mill pond now known as Colonial Lake. With his two younger sisters and friends, Maier would paddle the pond in small wooden boats. A graduate of The High School of Charleston, Maier attended the College of Charleston for a few years and then transferred to his father’s alma mater, Columbia University, in New York City. Upon graduation, he returned to Charleston work in the family insurance, real estate, and auction business, Triest & Israel, on Broad Street.

Active in congregation Beth Elohim, the Hebrew Orphan and Hebrew Benevolent Societies, B’nai B’rith, and numerous civic organizations, he was a consummate southerner. He had only one regret: that because his mother had traveled to New York late in her pregnancy to see family, he was born in the North instead of at home.

Maier Triest died of cancer at the age of 67 and was buried in the Coming Street cemetery.