Marilynn B Alsdorf

Marilynn Alsdorf was a Chicago arts patron whose contributions, many made with her late husband, James, enriched the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and also augmented the museum’s staff and facility. Alsdorf, 94, died of natural causes Aug. 1 2019 in her East Lake Shore Drive home, according to her son, Jeffrey. Alsdorf also was an important benefactor of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art. Born Marilynn Bruder in 1925, she grew up in the Rogers Park area on the Far North Side of Chicago, her son said. After high school at the since-closed St. Scholastica Academy, she went on to Northwestern University for an undergraduate degree from what was then the Medill School of Journalism. A son, James Jr., died in 2012. Other survivors include a daughter, Lynne; six grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.