Gertrude S. Danziger

Gertrude Danziger, née Seelig, age 102, passed away peacefully on December 9, 2021 in Chicago due to respiratory failure. Gertrude (Trudy) was born in 1919 in Chicago, Illinois to Clara and Isadore Seelig. Her father owned a grocery store on the North side of Chicago and her mother was a homemaker. She had one sister, Pat, with whom she was very close. Gertrude attended Roosevelt High School, where she was salutatorian of her class. She took summer journalism and photography courses at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the 1940's and planned to pursue journalism at Northwestern but instead took a series of jobs, including executive secretary to Hugo Sonnenschein, when dissuaded by friends who convinced her that when the men came back from the War there would not be jobs for female journalists. She was active in Temple Jeremiah (Northfield) and Temple Sholom (Chicago), where she was president of the junior board. Gertrude met her husband, Sigmund Herman Danziger Jr. (1917-1979) at the shiva for her mother. They were married at Temple Sholom in Chicago in the rabbi's study 10 days after meeting. They moved in 1957 to Winnetka, where she was an active member of the community for over 50 years. In 1979, after the death of her husband, she became CEO and President of Homak Mfg Co Inc., which her husband had founded. During the subsequent 25 years, she oversaw the growth of Homak into one of the largest sheet metal fabricators in America. At its peak, it was the primary supplier of roller cabinets and tool boxes for most of the major retailers, including Walmart, Kmart, Lowe's, The Home Depot True Value, Ace Hardware, Montgomery Ward, Coast-to-Coast, Costco, Meijer, Pep Boys, Fingerhut, and NAPA; security and gun vaults for the sporting goods industry, including Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain, Dick's Sporting Goods and Sports Authority; and developed a line of crash and hospital carts. The manufacturing facility grew from 35,000 sq ft to over 400,000 sq ft and employed over 800 people during her tenure. She became known at trade shows as the "Tool Box Lady" and the only female CEO of a major manufacturer in the hardware and sporting goods industries. In spite of her professional success, she remained focused on taking care of her family and the "boys." Gertrude is survived by her two children, Robert Steven (Mary) and James Charles of Illinois and granddaughters, Hannah Sidney and Haley Sarah of Chicago, Illinois. The funeral will be 10 AM on Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at Weinstein & Piser Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Blvd, Wilmette. Interment Rosehill. Visitation and shiva will be at 175 E. Delaware Pl, #5910, Chicago from 5 to 7 PM Tuesday and Wednesday. If anyone would rather not meet in person due to the risk of Covid, comments may be left in the guestbook. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Alzheimer's Association, www.alz.org.