Lee Baumgarten started his lumber yard on Pershing Road in 1952.
He designed and dug the foundation for the first building at Lee Lumber and Building Material, which now has a half-dozen locations and takes in annual sales of more than $40 million.
Mr. Baumgarten, 89, died of natural causes on Sunday, March 9 at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview, said his son, Randy. He was a resident of Winnetka.
A master of many trades, Mr. Baumgarten undertook just about every task at his lumber yard, from millwork to deliveries. Lee’s expansion began about 20 years ago with the opening of a major outlet at Belmont and Kedzie Avenues and after his sons Randy and Rick got into the business full-time.
Mr. Baumgarten’s grandson is now also part of the business.
The son of Austrian immigrants, Mr. Baumgarten lived in various North Side neighborhoods as a boy and graduated from Crane High School.
In World War II, he graduated at the top of his class in officers training school at Ft. Sill in Oklahoma , and stayed on as an instructor to other fledgling officers for the war’s duration.
Back in Chicago, he worked his way up to manager at a lumber yard. But feeling he wasn’t going to advance despite assurances from his boss to the contrary, he struck out on his own.
With some savings and investments from his uncle and a couple of others, he started Lee Lumber. The bulk of his business came from small contractors. When his regular customers were short on cash, Mr. Baumgarten was generous in extending credit, his son said.
” Back when times were a lot tougher, I guarantee he gave us credit,” said Bob Mathes of Linn Mathes, a Chicago general contractor that had been doing business with Lee Lumber since its opening.
“He was kind of a bigger-than-life kind of guy,” Mathes said of Mr. Baumgarten. Mr. Baumgarten moved to Wilmette early in his career, buying a house that needed work and for several years doing his own remodeling well into the night after long workdays. But he believed in investing in the neighborhood where his living was made, his son said, and so for years was active with the Valentine Boys and Girls Club in Bridgeport.
Mr. Baumgarten was also a regular at the club’s pool. When he was 85, he took donations for laps completed for a benefit. His donors had to pay more than they had expected when he surprised them by completing 100 laps, his son said.
Mr. Baumgarten is survived by his wife, Dorothy; and four grandchildren.
Services have been held.
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ttjensen@tribune.com
