Eddie Laken, 66, of the Near North Side, a broker with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, died Friday in Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center. Mr. Laken worked in the wholesale meat business in the New York metropolitan area until the mid-1960s, when he became the vice president of Food Fair Stores Inc. in Philadelphia, a chain of 700 East Coast supermarkets. Mr. Laken ran the meatpacking division of Food Fair Stores, which included Mid-Town Veal & Mutton in Newark, N.J., Allen Packing in Elizabeth, N.J., and United Packers in Denver. In 1986, Mr. Laken moved to Chicago, where he worked as the vice president of First Commercial Financial Corp., a Chicago Mercantile Exchange member clearing firm owned by his son Glenn. In 1990, Mr. Laken joined Cambridge Cellular, a Northbrook-based affiliate of Ameritech Corp., as vice president in charge of sales. In 1992, Mr. Laken returned to the Merc as vice president of Lake Futures Ltd., a brokerage firm. Other survivors include his wife, Anita; a son, Lane; a sister; and four grandchildren. Services will be at 11 a.m. Sunday in Weinstein Brothers Wilmette Chapel, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette.
