Best known and widely admired as the innovative founder of the Lands' End clothing empire, Gary Comer was a most self-effacing billionaire whose largesse will have a lasting impact on Chicago.
A Depression-era child of the South Side, Comer never forgot his humble beginnings and he shared his success, funding all manner of endeavors.
Comer, 78, died Wednesday in his Gold Coast apartment after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He was surrounded by his family.
"Gary's drive to succeed in business was only surpassed by his deep commitment to Chicago's children," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. "His generosity was boundless. He knew firsthand the importance of hard work and excellence, and he devoted his later life to instilling those values in others."
A few months ago, as Comer toured the nearly completed Gary Comer Youth Center, a new $30 million building not far from his childhood home in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, the effects of his illness were apparent. He looked frail, but traveling by wheelchair through the building seemed to brighten his spirits.
"Isn't this going to be the greatest thing for the kids?" he said, a smile crossing his face.
Gary Campbell Comer was the son of a railroad employee and a homemaker. "I used to use nearby Oak Woods Cemetery as a playground," he once recalled.
He was an indifferent student at Paul Revere Elementary School and Hyde Park High School. He learned to sail at a Chicago Park District beach house. A few years later, he was a world-class sailor, winning a number of competitions, including the North American Championships and a bronze medal in the Pan America Games.
With no money for college, Comer went to work, toiling at odd jobs before landing a position at the advertising firm of Young & Rubicam in 1950.
In 1960, he quit and headed to Europe, where he spent a year traveling. He returned to Chicago and met Francie Ceraulo when she was on a date with another man. He asked for her phone number, which she wrote in lipstick on a napkin.
He called and in 1962 they were married. He had already started a business, selling sailboat equipment, hardware, duffel bags, rain suits and a few items of clothing. He called his new company Lands' End because, he said, "It had a romantic ring to it, and conjured visions of a point to depart from on a perilous journey."
Eventually he bought out two partners and in 1975 printed his first catalog. Two years later, the company was selling only clothing and moved its headquarters to Dodgeville, Wis.
Comer took the company public in 1986 and Lands' End became one of the most innovative and largest mail-order businesses in the world.
In 2002, Sears, Roebuck and Co. purchased Lands' End for $1.9 billion. "He was genuinely grateful that he was able to give jobs to people," said Comer's daughter Stephanie, a photographer and author who administers the Comer Foundation with her mother. "I think what made Lands' End so successful was that he cared."
In addition to his home in Chicago, Comer had a home in Maine, and a farm in Wisconsin. He had his own plane and a boat named Turmoil, which he took on trips around the world.
"There was nobody like Gary, and it wasn't about money, about the numbers," said Lois Weisberg, the city's cultural affairs commissioner and a close friend of the family. "Gary's contributions to this city will be felt for generations. He wanted the best and he had the power and the passions to get what he wanted."
The Comers have given away millions of dollars. For his old grammar school he bought computers, an air-conditioning system, uniforms and promised 8th graders that he would pay college tuition for any who graduated from high school.
He funded CITY 2000, a yearlong photo project that has yielded 500,000 photos and a book. The couple has donated more than $80 million to the creation and expansion of the Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago; funded the South Shore Drill Team; built homes for people in the Grand Crossing neighborhood--the list is a long one.
"We loved each other and we loved this city," said Francie Comer. "We never imagined the success that we would have. Gary was poor and at one point realized he had as much money as he would ever need and also realized that there was so much he could do to help others."
"My dad's legacy will be his humanity," said Comer's son Guy, a former commercial airline pilot who now operates the Comer Science and Education Foundation.
On Sept. 19, Guy's wife, Courtney, gave birth to a baby boy.
"It came two weeks early," said Guy. "I think he just wanted to get a chance to meet my dad."
The baby's name is Gary Campbell Comer II. In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Comer is survived by son-in-law Rob Craigie and two other grandchildren, a girl Sienna and boy Luca.
Services will be private.
