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player ready...Lionel Goldblatt was for many years CEO of the Goldblatt department store chain in Chicago that his father founded in 1914. In his later years he was a frequent volunteer at the Chicago Botanic Garden and at two area hospitals.
“He was extraordinarily kind and was definitely a people person, and he very much enjoyed working on the front lines with families,” said Judy Cashen, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s retired director of volunteer administration and engagement.
Goldblatt, 93, died of a cardiac-related issue on Nov. 28 at his Evanston home, said his daughter, Vicki.
Born in Chicago, Lionel Howard Goldblatt was the son of Nathan Goldblatt, who was 19 years old when he and his brother Maurice cobbled together $500 in 1914 to open a small store at the corner of Ashland and Chicago avenues. By the early 1980s Goldblatt’s had expanded into a chain of 47 stores across the Midwest in part by catering to Chicago’s many immigrant communities, and by offering inexpensive clothing, appliances and housewares, including many items that came to stores from manufacturers’ overruns.
Lionel Goldblatt grew up in a 42-room pink-colored mansion at 612 Sheridan Road in Wilmette that was right across the street from the Baha’i Temple. Nathan Goldblatt died in 1944, and the mansion was razed in 1949.
Lionel Goldblatt earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University in 1951. He then served in the Air Force, his daughter said.
Goldblatt’s lone full-time job was working for the Goldblatt’s chain of stores, his daughter said. He began helping out in the stores from a very young age and never stopped, she said.
Goldblatt later became the chain’s CEO, and he oversaw operations during a postwar period of increased competition, especially in suburban areas. Goldblatt’s went bankrupt in 1981 and reemerged in 1982 with fewer than 10 stores.
Goldblatt served as chairman of the newly reorganized company and it operated until 2000, when the chain liquidated, selling seven of its eight remaining store leases to Ames Department Stores.
He remained chairman for one final revival of the chain in 2001, starting with one store located in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. That chain grew to six stores before liquidating in 2003. At that point, Goldblatt fully retired and turned his attention to volunteer work, his daughter said.
“Instead of going to Florida like so many others do, he chose to stay here and focus on his community,” his daughter said.
Goldblatt volunteered at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, at Evanston Hospital and at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, one of Goldblatt’s favorite tasks was working in the model railroad garden, including helping to set up the trains and cleaning the tracks, Cashen said.
All told, he was a volunteer there for about 10 years and gave more than 2,000 hours of service, Cashen recalled.
“He was not looking for recognition at all,” she said. “He was just a joy.”
A first marriage to Patricia Garretson ended in divorce, although the two remained close friends for the rest of his life, his daughter said. Goldblatt’s second wife, Sharon, died in an automobile accident in 1996.
In addition to his daughter, Goldblatt is survived by two granddaughters.
A service is being planned for the spring.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
To purchase a death notice, visit https://placeanad.chicagotribune.com/death-notices. To suggest a staff-written obituary on a person of local interest, email [email protected]
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