Julius Berman, one of the first employees of the Social Security Administration and who was drawn to government service by a deep desire to assist people in need, died Tuesday, Dec. 31, in his daughter’s Mt. Prospect home.
Mr. Berman, 89, a Chicago native, went to work for the federal government immediately after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935. A journalist at the time, Mr. Berman saw the new government program as his best way to give something back to society, his daughter Beverly Zimberoff said.
He ascended the administration’s ranks to become director of the 2,500-employee Great Lakes Program Service Center for Social Security, a position he held when he retired in the mid-1970s.
“So much of his life was devoted to trying to help people and he felt this was the best way,” Zimberoff said. “So many people held him in high esteem for his kindness and his humanity. We’ve gotten letters from a number of people saying they considered him their mentor.”
Mr. Berman, who graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, became a news writer after college. He worked for a wire service in Baltimore for several years and eventually became the editor of the Independent newspaper in Beckley, W.Va. He left that job to begin a 40-year career with the federal government in Washington.
In 1949 he returned to Chicago. He hosted a weekly radio show on WMBI called “You and Your Security” and wrote a series in the Sun-Times. Both endeavors consisted of answering questions from the public about Social Security.
“He was a marvelous fellow,” said his longtime friend and employee Lee Forrest. “He was gruff on the outside, but soft as a marshmallow on the inside when it came to helping people.”
Besides his daughter, survivors include two other daughters, Lorraine Simons and Ilene Simon; and five grandchildren.
A service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Chicago Jewish Funerals Chapel, 195 N. Buffalo Grove Rd., Buffalo Grove.
