The Goldblatt Family Highlights from a Century of Impact
1950 Maurice is appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Council, charged with counseling the National Cancer Institute on cancer policy and funding.
1954
Setting Up Shop
1913 Maurice and Nathan Goldblatt, 21 and 19 respectively, set up shop at Chicago and Ashland Avenues in Chicago’s Polish-Ukrainian community — the genesis of the Goldblatt Brothers department store chain. 1 91 0
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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY
Goldblatt Brothers department store, 1955
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Maurice launches the Cancer Research Foundation as a vehicle for his own fundraising for cancer research. He immerses himself in the science, trolling University labs. He is a quick study and possesses “wonderful intuition,” says daughter Merle Goldblatt Cohen. One of the first grantees is Charles B. Huggins, MD, who would win the 1966 Nobel Prize for his work establishing the role of hormones in many cancers. Huggins later becomes an advisor to the CRF.
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Nathan Goldblatt Dies A check from the Cancer Research Foundation for more than $1 million is presented by Maurice Goldblatt, right, and business community leaders to University of Chicago Chancellor Robert M. Hutchins, left, in 1947.
1944 Following a short illness, Nathan dies from pancreatic cancer. Maurice quits the business to devote himself to philanthropy and fundraising for cancer research. “He saw it as his next job,” says granddaughter Lisa Schenkman.
1960
1961 Learning of plans to connect Chicago Lying-in Hospital with the medical center campus, Maurice underwrites construction of the linking building — the Goldblatt Pavilion.
1946-7 Maurice pledges $1 million to cancer research at the University of Chicago. The gift goes toward building the Nathan Goldblatt Memorial Hospital for Neoplastic Diseases. Maurice also launches a fundraising drive for cancer research at the University that nets more than $1 million in under two months — almost double its target. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTER, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION