George Mrazek embraced life with both extreme reason and soul. He told his children that they could hold any opinion they liked, but they’d better be able to back it up. He was known to pull the car over to the curb when they said something illogical.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia Aldred Mrazek, originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana; his daughter, Ellen (Dan Slattery); his son, David (Teresa Fitzgerald); his grandchildren Sam, Peter and Lily. His sister Alice preceded him in death.
Born in 1928, George was raised by his Czech-born parents, Anna Bartos and Anton Mrazek, in Berwyn where the family owned a bakery and a two-flat. Wonderful bakers, Anna and Anton continued to bring beautiful homemade birthday cakes to family parties into the 1970s.
Having lost their livelihood during the Depression, George’s parents moved the family to nearby Austin where they lived in and managed an apartment building. The living room doubled as the manager’s office and tripled as George’s bedroom. After waking in the morning George would flip his bed back into a sofa and prepare to hand out linens — washed and pressed by his mother — to residents through the living room half-door.
George loved school and enjoyed many hobbies and interests. Around the fifth grade George was judged a Duncan Yo-Yo Champion at the local Woolworth’s, whereupon he toured other stores to display his talents and help sell yo-yos. He created homemade posters with his toy rubber letter press to advertise puppet shows he put on for apartment residents. He journeyed downtown to Marshall Field’s to see magic tricks demonstrated at the toy department. This dexterous art became a lifelong hobby. While attending Austin High School George was the newspaper’s managing editor and cartoonist. Because of his talent, George was awarded the opportunity to take life drawing classes at the Art Institute, thus beginning another lifelong love. Later in life, George became interested in model railroading, although his weakness was overly expansive planning. He never got the track tunneling through his mountain to double back and connect to the rest of the layout.
George attended Northwestern University on a scholarship and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He vividly described frigid winter commutes to and from Evanston hanging outside an overcrowded Lake Street “L” car. He related that college was not so much fun and games — the friends he made were there on the GI Bill, happy to be alive after the war, lucky to be in school.
George served stateside in the armed forces during the Korean War; when the brass discovered he could type, George plied his talents for the public affairs department. He said the best thing about the Army was meeting fellow draftees from all over the country. George also enjoyed trips from Washington, D.C., to New York City where his uniform gained him entrance to several Broadway shows.
When George returned home, at a rained out smelt fishing party on a Lake Michigan beach, he met Patricia Aldred. They were soon enjoying evenings out at the London House and Mr. Kelly’s. In 1958, the two Unitarians were married at Rockefeller Chapel.
After an idealistic foray in graduate studies at the University of Chicago in human development and sociology, George, married with a young baby daughter, decided instead to focus on advertising, and became a marketing executive at Sidney Clayton & Associates. In the mid-seventies he and Pat started their own ad agency, The Communications Company. Pat wrote copy and George planned strategy; they were a great combination. He adored his clients and loved to produce vibrant, relevant marketing communication for them.
On family vacations George piloted their unique baby blue 1957 Cadillac limousine chassis-mount camper. Often the vacations led the family to the dunes in Southwest Michigan and auto repair shops throughout the Midwest. George and Pat fell in love with Southwest Michigan and ultimately built a house in Harbert, where family and relatives gathered for decades in the summers. Ellen and David fondly remember family trips that included a campfire and George leading them in his favorite songs, among them “I’ve Got a Gal from Kalamazoo” and “Follow the Drinking Gourd.”
George was a known as a “Renaissance Man;” he had expansive knowledge of diverse fields such as law, architecture and computer programming. He installed a Wang computer for his office in the early 1980s, enthusiastically embraced the internet from the start, and tried to sell a calculator programmed to do copy fitting. Obsessed with Steve Jobs and Xerox Parc, George was the first in the family to discover Apple products.
Pat and George were longtime members of the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale and were ardent supporters of its spiritual community. He treasured Thanksgiving trips to Indiana to count blessings with their beloved Hoosier cousins.
Addicted to the news until recent years due to his decline, George’s favorites were Mike Royko, Paul Krugman and Rachel Maddow. He loved spirited conversation about politics, but also about layout, typography, the virtues of a Steppenwolf or Goodman play or the best way to tackle a home repair.
In retirement Pat and George moved to a condo in Chicago with a beautiful view of Lincoln Park; in recent years they lived at Bethlehem Woods in La Grange Park.
Near the end George made an indelible connection with his beloved caregiver Hilda. They shared a lovely friendship in his final years. George, cajoled by Hilda to stay healthy and complete his exercises, enjoyed singing Zambian songs with her. After a marked decline in health, George died of natural causes, peacefully in his bed on October 27, 2020.
His family dearly recalls the joyful experience of seeing George as host, encountering friends from the monthly movie group, family celebrating a birthday or his dearest friend, Milt Fanta, from the neighborhood. There George is now, with his animated bright eyes, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of stimulating conversations and a good time. Throwing his arms apart he exclaims, “Whaaaat can I get you?!”
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