Cindy Pritzker, beloved family matriarch and philanthropist, dies at 101

Marian “Cindy” Friend Pritzker was the matriarch of one of Chicago’s most powerful families. She was the wife of the man behind the Hyatt Hotel dynasty, aunt of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and a philanthropist who championed the city’s public libraries and architecture.

Mrs. Pritzker also liked to have a good time. She enjoyed the occasional glass of wine and cigarette. She held the family record for swearing. At age 80, she got her ears pierced for the first time. A decade later, she got her first tattoo.

Mrs. Pritzker died Saturday, according to a family representative. She was 101 years old. A statement from her family did not disclose how or where she died.

“Cindy touched the lives of many, serving as a role model for resilience, determination and the power of laughter,” her family said in the statement. “She met challenges with unwavering resolve, bringing her energy and bold spirit to every endeavor. Her legacy lives on in the institutions she shaped, the city she loved and the family she cherished.”

Mrs. Pritzker was the wife of Jay Pritzker and mother to their five children. She headed the Chicago Public Library Board and with her husband co-founded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Andy Warhol even painted her portrait, which now hangs in the Chicago Athletic Association hotel’s rooftop lounge that carries her name.

Mrs. Pritzker married Jay Pritzker after meeting when they were teenagers, and the two remained together until he died from a heart attack in 1999. Jay Pritzker built the Hyatt Hotels chain and helped develop his family’s multibillion-dollar business empire.

Mrs. Pritzker was born in Chicago on Dec. 15, 1923, to Cook County Judge Hugo Friend and Sadie Friend. She grew up on the South Side. She attended Hyde Park High School and Grinnell College in Iowa. She was known as her neighborhood tomboy with a “spirited and fearless personality,” according to her family’s statement.

Her father, a Cook County circuit judge, presided over the trial for the Chicago "Black Sox" game-fixing scandal in which eight White Sox players were indicted and ultimately acquitted, for throwing the 1919 World Series.

“We plan to celebrate her life at the library later to honor her importance to the city as an individual who was loving, fun, deep, as well as being in possession of a steely inside,” her daughter Gigi Pritzker Pucker told the Sun-Times.

“After all, she was a South Side girl who was the daughter of a Chicago judge who taught her a sense of justice and fairness and a clear sense of morality," Pucker added. "But above all, she was fun and loved to laugh and had no trouble telling people where she stood. We adored her.”

Mrs. Pritzker met Jay Pritzker while on vacation when they were teenagers. Their families owned lake houses near each other in Eagle River, Wisconsin. They married in August 1947.

Mayor Harold Washington appointed Mrs. Pritzker to the Chicago Public Library Board in 1984. She served as the board’s president and led the effort to build the Harold Washington Library Center in the Loop, which opened in 1991. She was also the founding chair of the Chicago Public Library Foundation.

Mrs. Pritzker and Jay Pritzker, both fans of architecture, founded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979. Mrs. Pritzker played a role in commissioning architect Frank Gehry to design the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

Pucker spoke to the Sun-Times about her mother when Mrs. Pritzker turned 100 in 2023.

“My mother is much loved, still with it, and sharp as a tack for her age, but she has always been quite a character. That’s what makes her so special," she said.

Mrs. Pritzker played Ms. Pac-Man several nights a week. As a teenager, she carried a pocket knife in a pair of boots. She also got her ears pierced for the first time at 80 and her first tattoo at 90.

And when her doctor said they had to address her smoking, she replied, “Let’s not!”

“Mother is the coolest thing in the world,” Pucker told the Sun-Times.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Pritzker is survived by her sons — Tom, John, Dan — along with 14 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Their daughter Nancy died in 1972.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, her family requests donations be made in her honor to the Chicago Public Library Foundation or the Nancy Pritzker Laboratory at Stanford University.