Harold Patinkin

1925 - 2016

Harold Patinkin, a larger than life Chicago businessman who ran a Red Angus beef farm, political campaigns and, in retirement, weekly current events discussions attended by hundreds, died near his beloved Sanibel Island on Wednesday shortly after his sons arrived to bid him goodbye. He was 90. Hal, as everyone called him, would often boast that he raised five sons and, over a half century, thousands of Red Angus cows. He would doubtless rank as his greatest achievement the wooing of his wife June, the only woman he ever loved. When he asked for her hand after their fourth date, she told him she was on her way to Paris for an adventure working for the Marshall Plan so he followed, eventually won her, and they married there in 1950 with her landlady as the witness. They were together 66 years. Hal was a raconteur with a big personality who made it his business to amuse whomever he ran into, even strangers in elevators - he would push buttons for them and say, "That'll be $50 please." His style in dress was equally casual, with his ever-present bolo ties and "Patinkin Red Angus Farms" mesh caps with their signature image of an anatomically correct bull. Although a city businessman who worked in metals recycling, he bought a 200 acre weekend working farm in the rolling hills of Jo Daviess County near Galena in the 1960s, building it to 800 acres and a herd of 350 cows whom he expected to drop him a "coupon" once a year. During summers in the 1970s, he hired his sons to bale and stack hay while he bounced alongside the tractors in a Jeep Wagoneer shouting instructions. He liked to hand out his Red Angus "business" card to all he ran into, even waiters, asking to call if they needed a bull. Often, he would tell slightly inappropriate stories about pregnancy testing the cows, sometimes at the microphone at family events. But Hal also had a passionate political mind. Right up to his final year, he would read a half dozen newspapers a day - the cashiers at Bailey's supermarket on Sanibel always had them ready for him. He insisted on the print editions, saying he didn't believe in that new-fangled online nonsense, often adding with a twinkle in his eye, "I've seen a lot of changes in my 80-plus years and I've been against every one of them." As a new dad in the 1950s in South Shore, he and June would take their sons to an Adlai Stevenson headquarters to stuff envelopes, and in the 1960s, Hal ran the early campaigns of Abner Mikva, former congressman, federal judge and White House counsel to President Clinton. It was that passion that brought him in retirement to start a weekly "Current Events" discussion group that began with a handful of Sanibel friends, and continues decades later as an island institution. Harold Samson Patinkin was born in 1925 in Chicago, son of Max and Celia Patinkin who arrived through Ellis Island from Russia at the turn of the century. Hal grew up in Englewood, graduated from Colorado College, and worked as a teaching assistant with plans of becoming a history professor, actor or writer. But after the sudden loss of his older brother Lester, his father called him home to join the family business, Peoples Iron and Metal Recycling on the South Side. Hal later became an executive with U.S. Reduction, buying scrap aluminum for its furnaces. He was a fan of the Cubs in the 1930s and the White Sox in the '60's. He also loved fine cigars, and movies from the 1930s when they still knew how to make them. He often took his young sons on "Dad junk-food" shopping sprees at the Co-op in Hyde Park, favoring Ice Cream Cake roll early on, and later, Dove Bars and Frozen Milky Ways which he would hand out to his 16 grandchildren at family gatherings. Much to the frustration of his wife, even in his 80's Hal ignored his doctor's advice and regularly ate cheeseburgers for lunch, barbequed ribs for dinner, and smoked a half-dozen cigars a day. It did not shorten his life. He did confide to one of his sons that he promised June he'd given up smoking, and when asked if he'd give up Dove Bars too, he said he couldn't or she'd smell cigars on his breath. In an example of how he never did anything halfway, a son signed him up in 1965 to coach South Shore Little League and within a few years, Hal was president of the league as well as coach of the all-star team. His hero was George Washington, and over decades, he filled his farm-house and Chicago home with what's likely the country's biggest private collection of original Washington prints. Hal had countless civic involvements, including a long run with the Independent Voters of Illinois. In the small town of Hanover near his farm, he headed a drive to buy an ambulance for the town. He was on the board of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation when it acquired key parcels of island land. Hal was among the founders of Temple Bat Yam of Sanibel, and was a frequent master of ceremonies at island events, especially at the Big Arts center, where he often wore his bolo tie and Red Angus cap at the podium. Hal is survived by his wife June Marks Patinkin and four sons - Mark, Douglas, Matthew and Nicholas, and Hugh in spirit. He often called them his greatest pride, although he seldom got their names right on the first try. He also leaves daughters-in-law Jenny, Robin and Sheila Patinkin. He was the grandfather of 16, often referred to by the family as "The Herd" - Benjamin, Shannon, Joshua, Max, Ariel, Alex, Zachary, Lila, Phoebe, Olivia, Adam, Jason, Liza, Jonah, Gabriel and Ari - and spouses Sara, Samantha, and Jon Bognacki. He was the great-grandfather of Flynn, Anna, Hudson, Hadley and Sienna. He was the last of Max and Celia's four children, including Lester, Ida and Lillian and their spouses Doralee, Harold Dray and Sol Levine. Hal would also want it noted that he leaves a current herd of 350 Red Angus cows, the coupons they've dropped him this year, and 12 bulls. Service Monday June 20 2:00 P.M., at Chicago Jewish Funerals Chapel, 8851 Skokie Blvd. (at Niles Center Rd.), Skokie. Interment Memorial Park. . Memorials in his memory to JUF would be appreciated. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals-Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822