George Diamond, 83, of Glenview, who began collecting scrap metal in a truck on Chicago’s North Side and built a lucrative scrap-metal and electronic-parts-manufacturing business, died of lung cancer Tuesday, June 25, in Glenbrook Hospital. Born and raised in Albany Park, Mr. Diamond graduated in 1937 from Von Steuben High School and was drafted four years later into the Army Air Forces, where he served as a master sergeant in Africa. He returned to Chicago in 1946 and followed his father into the scrap-metal business, first collecting the metal in his truck and eventually opening scrap yards in Skokie, Rolling Meadows and Florida. The business, George Diamond & Co. Inc., began to manufacture electronic switches, connectors and terminal boards at a plant in Albany Park in 1953. A decade later, Mr. Diamond moved both businesses to Skokie, where they operated until he sold them in 1985 to go into sales. He sold industrial wire until several weeks before his death. Mr. Diamond was vice president at Temple Beth-El in Rogers Park and later, after his family moved in 1960 to Highland Park, at B’nai Torah. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; three sons, Stuart, Jim and Ira; a daughter, Judy Kaplan; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Services were held.
