Peter Schwartz, 69, a former Chicago resident who owned an auto body shop, died Wednesday, June 14, of emphysema at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “He was warm and gregarious,” said Richard Schwier, a cousin. “He made friends easily and was well known on the South Side in the auto business. He believed in word-of-mouth referrals and satisfied customers.” Mr. Schwartz had a lifelong love affair with the automobile. He worked as a body and fender man for several auto dealers in his youth. In the late 1960s, he started Danrich Auto Repair Shop in a small brick building on the Southwest Side. He came up with the name by combining the first names of his two sons, Daniel and Richard, Schwier said. The firm’s original location was near Midway Airport, where Mr. Schwartz spent much of his leisure time flying his Cessna Skyhawk single-engine plane. “We’d take little excursions on weekends and fly around, not very far,” Schwier said. In the 1980s, Mr. Schwartz moved the business, now Danrich Collision Center, to Lockport. Survivors include his sons, Daniel and Richard; six sisters, Phyllis Chambers, Pauline Ludwig, Cheryl, Penny, Mary Puleikis and Cathy Nawara; a brother, Kenny; and three grandchildren. Services are pending.
