Harry Hoffman, 81, of Skokie died Monday of a stroke at a hospital in Sarasota, Fla. Mr. Hoffman was born in Chicago and reared on the Northwest Side. He attended Tuley High School. Without the benefit of an advanced degree, Mr. Hoffman became a successful jeweler, first owning his own store and later buying and liquidating jewelry stores across the country. “He would buy a big jewelry store and buy it in 10 minutes and wasn’t afraid to do anything,” said his son, Richard. “He had guts.” As a young man, Mr. Hoffman was a salesman in a jewelry store before becoming an auctioneer of gems, art and expensive merchandise. He served in the Philippines as an Army Air Forces sergeant during World War II. From 1957 to 1967, he owned a jewelry and art shop across the street from Marshall Field’s department store. But Mr. Hoffman loved the excitement of buying and liquidating other stores, an endeavor he undertook for many years, sometimes with his son as his partner. In the early 1970s the pair opened a small office in Skokie, which by accident grew into the Hoffman Jewelers. Other survivors include his wife Edith; a daughter, Ellen; two sisters, Anne Diamond and Bernice Goldberg; and two grandsons. Services were held.
