Joeseph Zilber dies at 92

[mu_hilltopper]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/88560707.html

Big MU donor.


Joseph J. Zilber, who grew up above the family grocery store at N. 10th St. and W. Meinecke Ave. and later became a real estate tycoon who spent the last years of his life becoming one of the city's biggest philanthropists, died Friday morning.

He was 92.

Zilber had suffered bouts of pneumonia during the past year and spent much of the time at his home in Hawaii.

"But he wanted to come back to Milwaukee," said Michael P. Mervis, vice president of Zilber Ltd., who announced Zilber's death Friday.

On Monday, Zilber flew back here because he said he wanted to attend a company meeting planned for next week, Mervis said.

He went directly to the Zilber Hospice in Wauwatosa, which he built in 2004, and was talking with old friends, Mervis said.

Zilber died at the hospice Friday morning.

Zilber made his fortune after World War II when he began building thousands of homes for returning veterans and founded Towne Realty Inc., which later became part of Zilber Ltd.

As the years went by his real estate empire grew to include downtown office buildings, movie theaters and nursing homes. He expanded his business interests to the Sun Belt, where he built condominiums, resort time-share properties and had other investments.

In recent years, one of his major projects was the development of the old Pabst Brewery which he bought and sold to other developments for apartments and office space.

In 2007, he made headlines when he pledged $30 million to the Marquette University Law School for scholarships. He also pledged $10 million toward the creation of a school of public health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In 2008, he announced his largest philanthropic gift when he announced the formation of the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative, a $50 million, 10-year commitment to support the development and improvement of 10 low income neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

One of the first two neighborhoods selected to participate was the Lindsay Heights neighborhood on the north side, the area where Zilber grew up. The other is the Clarke Square neighborhood on the south side.