Gertrude E. Malec, 92, of Boca Raton, Fla., a former president of the women’s division of the Chicago Real Estate Board, died Wednesday, May 29, of complications from a broken leg in St. Andrews Estates in Boca Raton. Mrs. Malec was born Gertrude Rattary in Timmins, Ontario. She lived and studied with her two sisters in a convent while their father worked in mining villages across Ontario, said her granddaughter, Julie.When Mrs. Malec was 10, her father died and her mother moved the family to Chicago’s South Side, where she ran a small store. At age 16, after graduating from high school, she married Mathew Malec. The two worked together until they retired in 1972. He had been working as a real estate broker in 1944 when he asked her one day to show a house. She sold the house and within two years became a broker. She was among the founders of the women’s division of the Chicago Real Estate Board and served as president of the division in 1953. She was a career mother who was determined to support her children. She decreed that her three sons would attend the University of Notre Dame. All three did, resulting in a legacy that made the school fight song a staple at family weddings.Her husband died in 1992. Survivors include two sons, Ronald and Bruce; 16 grandchildren; and 21 great-grandchildren. Services were held Sunday.
