For the Nazis who controlled Philippe J. Piette’s hometown of Gent, Belgium, during World War II, the sight of the 18-year-old engineering student delivering small plaster figurines wasn’t that threatening.
And that was exactly what Mr. Piette and others in the Belgian resistance movement wanted them to think.
The resistance hid coded messages inside the figurines that Mr. Piette delivered throughout the town from his uncle’s sculpting studio. In later years, living in Chicago, Mr. Piette talked little about his dangerous role in the war or the two medals he won from the Belgian government.
“To him it was his duty to his country,” said his son, Alan.
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Mr. Piette, 79, died Friday of a heart attack in his Gold Coast home.
He was the only child of parents who ran a hotel and restaurant just outside Gent.
It was a successful business, but his parents closed it because they refused to work for the Nazis.
Mr. Piette finished his engineering studies during the war and began a job with General Motors in Belgium in 1947, learning part of the business during a two-year training stint in Flint, Mich. The trip whetted his appetite to return later to the United States.
“He loved the freedom, the people, the open-mindedness here,” said his son.
Mr. Piette had a 33-year career with GM, rising to plant manager in Antwerp, where they made Chevrolets and Opel vehicles. In 1980, Mr. Piette and his wife of 51 years, Lucienne, moved to Chicago to be near their two sons, who live in the U.S., and to help one launch a company.
Philippe Jr. was starting a financial database company, WorldVest Base Inc., and Mr. Piette, who was chairman of the company, helped it grow into an international concern with offices in Prague, Czech Republic, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Mr. Piette enjoyed his daily brisk walk to work and afternoon swims, followed by a sauna at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. He was still working full time before he died.
Mr. Piette only mentioned in passing his role in the resistance, said his friend Arnie Collins.
“He didn’t seem to dwell on the past,” Collins said. “There was just too much life going on around him.”
Mr. Piette also is survived by two grandchildren.
Services will be private.