Hans Freeman, 89, a mechanical engineer who left Nazi Germany with just a few suitcases and became a successful Chicago businessman, died of renal failure Sunday, March 17, at his home in Lake Barrington. Because of religious persecution, Mr. Freeman knew he had to get out of Germany, so he asked his uncle in Chicago to act as a sponsor. In March 1938, he and his wife, Hilde, fled their homeland, leaving behind almost all their belongings. Mr. Freeman was soon working for the United States government on “top secret” war projects, said his daughter Susan Ross. Even today, Ross does not know what the projects were. During the war, Mr. Freeman also owned a photographic refinishing store in the Lakeview neighborhood, and studied for a master’s degree in engineering and plastics at Northwestern University. In 1945, Mr. Freeman started Creative Plastics, an injection-molding business that made dental equipment, water-softening devices and other custom-molded parts. He and his wife both had “the German wanderlust,” Ross said, so the family often traveled to places like Colorado, Florida, California and Europe. Always a tinkerer, Mr. Freeman liked to create things like a metal garden fountain and one-of-a-kind fishing lures. Mr. Freeman was an expert muskie fisherman. After retiring in 1978 and moving with his wife to California, Mr. Freeman began indulging in a new passion: computers. He took classes in programming, and took apart more than one computer, according to his daughter. “I frequently inherited his castoffs. There were little chip marks at the seams from the screwdriver,” Ross said. Mr. Freeman was married 64 years. “He held my hand in the movies, even after 64 years,” Hilde Freeman said. “He was a wonderful husband. I wish this on every girl.” Mr. Freeman is survived by another daughter, Hazel Wagner; four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Services will be private.
