Selig H. "Slick" Estroff

Selig “Slick” Herbert Estroff passed away at age 95 in Boston, MA on June 20, 2021. He was born at Morell Hospital in Lakeland, FL on July 9, 1925 to Samuel and Tillie (neé Barkin) Estroff. The enterprising couple had recently moved to Lakeland from Lyons, GA, and along with other maternal and paternal relatives founded The Jewish Alliance (later called Temple Emanuel) to ensure a Jewish future. Sadly, just before his 10th birthday, Selig and his elder brother Melvin Estroff lost their mother—a founding member of the Ladies Auxiliary and member of the local Eastern Star—to cancer. His father remarried to Mildred Mervis and had a son, Selig’s youngest brother, Harry Leonard Estroff.

Always a high achiever in school, Selig attended public school before he enrolled in The Citadel (Charleston, SC) in 1941. As WWII raged, Selig joined up and became an officer in the US Navy by the age of 19. He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Business Administration (1944) and then attended the Harvard Business School (1946). After the War, Selig returned to Lakeland to take over The Empire Store founded by his father. Working with his brother Melvin, Selig became a pillar of the downtown business community, serving as President of the Downtown Merchants Association and as a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce. The original store, founded in 1925, was located on the corner of Pine Street and North Kentucky Avenue. The business flourished, expanding to locations in Polk County and the Tampa Bay area including Searstown and the Southgate Shopping Center in Lakeland, the Westshore Plaza in Tampa and Tyrone Square in St. Petersburg. When Melvin moved to St. Petersburg in the late 1970s, the brothers separated the company and Selig retained the stores in Lakeland, remaining open until The Empire had celebrated over 50 years of continuous operation in Lakeland.

Selig was an active member at the synagogue founded by his father when his children were young, serving on the Board as Treasurer for many years and involved in fundraising to erect the current building in the late 1950s. Selig was particularly proud of his work with the United Jewish Appeal and other allied organizations that helped found and strengthen the State of Israel since the 1940s. In his leisure time, Selig was a skilled golfer, an activity which allowed him to join several of Polk County’s top golf clubs and to play on trips to Scotland, Ireland and the Caribbean. Always committed to his civic community, Selig was appointed by Governor Lawton Chiles to the Polk County School Board in the 1990s where he provided insight and challenged the status quo of public education. He did so from a place of experience: in his retirement, Selig had served as a substitute teacher where he shared his hard-won academic and business knowledge with a younger generation.

In 1966, Selig married JoAnn Lewis, the head buyer for The Empire Stores in Lakeland. The two enjoyed over 50 years of marriage together, travelling the world, until her passing on June 20, 2020. Selig was the proud father of three children (Todd Estroff and his late wife Maria, Judy Estroff and her husband Richard Parad, and Sanford Estroff and his late wife Linda), grandfather of four (Emanuelle Salvatore, Esther Estroff, Rebecca and Matthew Parad), and great-grandfather of two (Luca and Nico Salvatore) with his first wife, Joan Wilk, and also stepfather to Nancy Stanfill, her three children (Shelly Whitney, Julia Stanfill and the late Victor Stanfill), and two grandchildren (Matthew and Timothy Whitney). His son Todd graduated from Yale Medical School and now practices Psychiatry in Atlanta, GA; daughter Judy graduated from the UCSF School of Medicine and now practices Pediatric Radiology at Boston Children’s Hospital; and son Sanford graduated from Tulane Law School and practiced law in Lakeland.

Selig cared deeply about both national and international politics, and was a lifelong advocate of civil and human rights. Well into his 90’s he remained an avid reader with a sharp wit and a penchant for history. He will be remembered as a formidable ally, a devoted humanitarian, and an engaged citizen.