Leonard Gordon, 81, a fixture at his family-run grocery in Waukegan for more than 50 years, died Tuesday, Jan. 30, in Westmoreland Nursing Center in Lake Forest after suffering from pancreatic cancer. A lifelong resident of Waukegan, Mr. Gordon ran Gordon’s Food Market, a business launched by his father in the early 1920s. Until near the time of his death, he was spending a part of his day at the store, now called Waukegan Fruit Market. “He had a lifelong love affair with his business, starting with the time he rode with his father to the South Water Market in Chicago,” said his son Richard. Mr. Gordon knew most of his customers by name and helped them through personal and financial difficulties, family members said. Mr. Gordon graduated from Waukegan Township High School in 1937 and went to work for his father at the store. During World War II, he served in Europe as an artillery sergeant and translator for the Army and returned to Waukegan in 1946. He resumed his food business and married his wife, Rose, in 1947. She died in 1998. “My mother and father were lifelong partners and friends who were totally dedicated to each other and their children,” said another son, Fred. Mr. Gordon was a member of Temple Am Echod in Waukegan and the local Elks lodge. Mr. Gordon is also survived by two other sons, Steven and Michael; a sister, Helen Temaner; and four grandchildren. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Temple Am Echod, 1700 Sunset Ave., Waukegan.
