Alan F. Zeilinger

ALAN F. ZEILINGER, age 79, died November 15, 2016 in Moreland Hills, Ohio Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Zeilinger attended Peabody High School, graduating as class valedictorian in 1955. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania in 1959. In 1962, Zeilinger was hired as the Marketing Director of Magic American Chemical Corporation, a small Cleveland-based business specializing in adhesive products. He worked tirelessly in growing the business, adding multiple successful product lines of specialized household cleaning products. In 1981, leveraging everything he owned, Zeilinger purchased the business, (renamed Magic American Corporation) growing it into a multinational consumer products company. Zeilinger headed Magic American Corporation for 21 years, eventually selling it to a private equity firm in 2002. Zeilinger’s adroit inventiveness and originality served as the brainchild for several of today’s popular consumer products such as; Goo Gone, Panel Magic, Magic Stainless Steel Cleaner and numerous other specialty surface cleaners and bathroom housewares under the Magic product line. Zeilinger’s non-business-related passions included the pursuit for social justice, community theater, 1950s-era muscle cars and his family. In the late 1970s, Zeilinger traveled to the Soviet Union, meeting with numerous Soviet Jews who were refused permission to emigrate and subsequently persecuted through systematic and institutional antisemitism. He documented their stories and became a vocal and effective advocate in increasing American public attention to this deprivation of a basic human right. Zeilinger acted in numerous community theatre productions through Cleveland’s Dobama and Halle Community Theatres. Without fail, his annual appearances throughout the late 1980s and 1990s in Dobama Theater’s Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival were memorable, with each ensuing season becoming his favorite. He later became a generous benefactor of Cleveland’s community theatre scene, often driving his meticulously restored torch red 1955 Ford Thunderbird Convertible to the shows. Notwithstanding Zeilinger’s professional and personal accomplishments, none compared to his love, generosity and the joy he felt engaging with his immediate and extended family – especially his ten grandchildren, ranging in ages twelve to twenty-five. Zeilinger was the beloved husband of Jessie Gordon Zeilinger (née Koch); devoted father of Jimmy (Andrea) Zeilinger of Shaker Hts., OH and Michael (Laura) Zeilinger of Washington, DC. and step father of Cindy (Tim) Fox Gordon and Josh (Gali) Gordon; adoring grandfather of Sienna, Amanda, Ilana, Liam, Brian, Julie, Carin, Arielle, Eli, Isabella; former husband of Ethel Zeilinger; dear brother of the following deceased: Murray (Moine, deceased) Zeilinger and Rhoda (Edward, deceased) Claitman; cherished uncle. Memorial services will be held at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple, 23737 Fairmount Blvd., Beachwood, OH on Wednesday, November 23 at 11 AM. The family will receive friends WEDNESDAY FOLLOWING SERVICES FROM 4 – 8 PM at the residence of Jimmy and Andrea Zeilinger, 2909 Drummond Rd., Shaker Hts. OH. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to the Fairmont Temple Garden Fund in honor of Alan Zeilinger. Arrangements through BERKOWITZ-KUMIN-BOOKATZ MEMORIAL CHAPEL (800) 448-2210