George Bockl

Bockl, 98, who died in his Fox Point home on April 3 2008, was a real estate developer who created numerous commercial and residential buildings around Milwaukee.He was born in Russia and was eight when the Russian Revolution brought the Communists to power. His father had already come to the U.S., and the family settled in Milwaukee. He graduated from North Division High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He wanted to be a professional writer; he did some freelance journalism, tried to run a magazine, and wrote an unpublished novel about the Russian Revolution. In 1938, after “three agonizing years in which I couldn’t find employment,” he walked into the office of a small real estate brokerage firm and asked to work selling homes on commission. He discovered he had a talent for it, and by 1939 had started his own firm. His business activities bore abundant fruit in the post-World War II housing boom He is preceded in death by his wife, Mildred (nee Davidoff), died in the 1990s; and one of his children, son Robert. He is survived by daughters Bonnie (Leon) Joseph and Judy Bockl; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.