John J. Dau

John J. (Jack) Dau, 85, chairman and majority shareholder of Bally Block Company and Michigan Maple Block Company, died on December 28 after a lengthy fight against emphysema. He served on the boards of National Penn Bancshares, National Penn Investors Trust Company, and Boyertown Burial Casket Company and chaired the board of the Wyndcroft School. Mr. Dau was an American decorative arts expert, a winning sailing yacht racer and devoted family man.

Blessed with a sharp intellect and gregarious personality, Mr. Dau displayed a talent for business early in life. During the depth of the Depression when he was only 10 years old, he had amassed profits of over $200 from selling stray golf balls collected from his grandfather’s Miami garden to golfers in northern Michigan. He ran a pop stand out the back of his father’s Petoskey, MI furniture store and helped with deliveries- not a problem since he got his driver’s license at age 14.

He enlisted in the Navy upon graduation from Petoskey high school in 1944 and became a gunner, operating a 40mm bow gun on a landing assault ship, LSM-288. Prior to deployment in the Pacific, Mr. Dau’s right thumb was severed in a towing accident, and he was honorably discharged.

After receiving a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1950, Mr. Dau assumed management of Bally Block Company. In 1962 he acquired Michigan Maple Block Company, creating the largest Butcher Block manufacturing company in United States. Over 60 years later, at the time of his death, Mr. Dau was still actively engaged in company and board affairs.

In the 1960s, Mr. Dau began a life-long love affair with yacht racing. His yacht Merengue won many in-shore and off-shore Great Lakes racing trophies, most recently placing first in its section of the 333 mile 103rd Chicago to Mackinac Island Race last July. Mr. Dau’s other great passion was antiques and design. His Pottstown home, completed in 1959, is an example of leading Mid-Century Modern architecture, landscaping and interior design. Later, he turned his sharp eye toward the 18th and 19th centuries and became an expert on American decorative arts from that era.

Mr. Dau was pre-deceased by his wife of 54 years, the former Elizabeth Keely of Boyertown, and is survived by his daughters Barbara Southwell of Concord, MA and Ann Conway of Locust Valley, NY, and by five grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 10:30AM on December 31 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Boyertown. Donations may be made to Wyndcroft School, Pottstown.