Obit: Robert Pritzker, a patriarch of one of the world's richest families

By Eric Johnson

CHICAGO Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:58pm EDT
(Reuters) - Chicago businessman and founder of a conglomerate that was purchased by Warren Buffett, has died, his assistant said on Friday.

He was 85.

The cause of death was Parkinson's disease, said Pritzker's assistant, Becky Spooner.

Together with his brother Jay, who founded the Hyatt hotel chain, Robert Pritzker founded the Marmon Group, an industrial conglomerate that made everything from bolts and screws to water treatment products and railroad cars.

The company was purchased by billionaire investor Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2008.

"Throughout his career, Mr. Pritzker strongly believed that well-educated engineering minds would long be essential to the ability of the United States to compete in world markets," said Louhon Tucker, an executive at Colson Associates, in a statement.

The Pritzker family is one of the world's richest. The 11 members of the family on the 2011 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans -- which did not include Robert -- had a combined worth of $17.1 billion, according to the magazine.

Pritzker was born in Chicago in 1926. He graduated with a degree in industrial engineering in 1946 from Illinois Institute of Technology, the benefactor of a $60 million charitable contribution from Pritzker in 1996, the school said in a statement.

"Bob was an extraordinary man and one of IIT's most ardent and benevolent supporters. His name was synonymous with IIT," said President John L. Anderson. "The university is deeply saddened by the loss of one of its great leaders."

Pritzker retired from Chicago-based Marmon in 2002. He then created Colson Associates, a consortium of manufacturing and service companies, which he ran until just before his death.

Pritzker also served on many civic and cultural boards, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lincoln Park Zoological Society.

He is survived by his wife Mayari and five children.