Joseph Zilber

Joseph J. Zilber - the son of Russian immigrants who grew up above the family's north side Milwaukee grocery store and went on to become a real estate tycoon and, in his later years, one of the city's biggest philanthropists - died in March 2010 at the age of 92. Zilber suffered bouts of pneumonia during the past year, and he spent much of his time in recent years at his home in Hawaii. Zilber spent a lifetime in business doing deals and building a real estate and development empire. In 2007 he made headlines when he donated $30 million to the Marquette University Law School for scholarships and building purposes. He pledged $10 million for the creation of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Public Health. The Milwaukee Jewish Federation received a $3 million gift from the Joseph and Vera Zilber Foundation. In 2008 he announced the largest and most sweeping philanthropic endeavor in the city's history - a $50 million, 10-year commitment aimed at improving the city's poorest neighborhood called the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative. For most of his life, Zilber flew below the philanthropic radar. That began to change in 2004 when he committed his foundation to give $1 million for the construction of what's now called the Aurora VNA Zilber Family Hospice in Wauwatosa. He later announced $1.5 million to support the hospice and an additional one to be built. Zilber grew up above the grocery store his parents ran near N. 10th St. and W. Meinecke Ave. He graduated from Washington High School and earned a business degree from Marquette University. He went to Marquette University Law School and graduated first in his class in 1941. At Marquette he met his wife, the former Vera Feldman. They married in 1942. He served in the U.S. Army and returned to Milwaukee in 1943. After getting turned down for a job at a law firm, Zilber began working for the late George Bockl, a Milwaukee real estate developer, who hired him to close purchases for $5 a deal. In 1949 he struck out on his own and started Towne Realty. In the 1970s, Zilber's business interests expanded to the Sun Belt, including thousands of condo units, resorts, time-share properties and other investments. He even got government contracts to build the rocket launching gantry at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and missile silos in North Dakota. In the 1980s, a holding company, Zilber Ltd., was created for Towne Realty, Towne Investments and other privately held interests. The firm now owns or is developing property in nine states. Perhaps his strangest and most poignant deal involved the property of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Zilber and his wife were appalled when a judge approved the sale of the property. Zilber raised $407,225 - mostly his own money - to buy the property so it could be destroyed. The money went to the families of the victims. Zilber's wife, Vera, died in 2003. A son, James, died in 1997. Survivors include daughters Marcy Jackson and Marilyn Zilber, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.