Sherman Tucker spent more than 70 years on Chicago’s Jewelers Row along Wabash Avenue and was fondly known as “The Negotiator” for his deft bartering with others in the business.
Family lore has it that Al Capone bought a diamond belt buckle from Mr. Tucker’s store. Actor Chris O’Donnell, journalist Irv Kupcinet and Chicago author Sara Paretsky were all confirmed customers of the Tucker Co.
Paretsky was so taken by Mr. Tucker, she used him by name as the jeweler who cleans the diamond earrings of private investigator V.I. Warshawski in the 2001 novel “Total Recall.”
“He was so warm and friendly, the kind of person I knew growing up in a small town,” said Paretsky, whose roots are in rural Kansas. “He used to greet me by taking my hands and saying, ‘How are you doing, dear?’ He treated me special long before he knew who I was or what I did.”
Mr. Tucker kept a copy of “Total Recall” in his shop.
“He had a lot of fun with that,” said Donald Strzepek, who after working for the Tucker Co. for more than two decades became the shop’s owner six years ago when Mr. Tucker retired. “Customers would ask if he was the same guy in the book, and he’d just smile and nod.”
Mr. Tucker, 95, a former Navy officer and past president of the Chicago Jewelers Association, died Monday, April 9, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after a bout with pneumonia.
“Everybody knew him,” said his daughter Jamee Gregory. “We’d walk down the street, and people would walk up and say, ‘You sold me my diamond ring!'”
The Tucker Co. is housed in the Jewelers Center, a 21-story art deco building next to the “L” tracks, long known as the Mallers Building and recognized worldwide by those in the industry simply by its address, “5 South.”
“All you have to say is 5 South, and whether you’re talking with a diamond dealer from Tel Aviv or one from New York City, you’ve got an instant rapport,” Strzepek said.
Mr. Tucker’s father opened the store in 1935 as a small “premium house” selling a variety of high-end gifts at discounted prices, as well as providing watch repair.
“He was still in his teens when he began helping out at the store,” Gregory said. “He was a great salesman from the start. He understood you treat every customer as if it was your first.”
In the 1960s, Mr. Tucker and his brother, Norman, took over the company and shifted its focus to meet the increasing demand for loose diamonds and fine finished custom jewelry. The company quickly became a destination for customers looking for the perfect engagement ring.
“He was never a hard sell,” Gregory said. “He’d say, ‘Go to Tiffany, go to Cartier, then (you) come back to me.'”
A North Side native, Mr. Tucker graduated from Senn High School, then Northwestern University before joining the Navy in World War II and serving as an officer in the South Pacific.
“He once told me a wonderful story about being somewhere overseas and getting a star sapphire ring from his father in the mail, while his buddies were getting salamis,” Strzepek said.
Over the years, Mr. Tucker established strong relationships with diamond cutters from around the world. But the friendships he forged over the gleaming glass countertops of his small Loop shop brought him the most joy, his daughter said.
“His customers were from all walks of life, but he treated them all with the same degree of dignity and respect,” Gregory said. “To him, everybody was a somebody.”
Other survivors include his wife of 64 years, Arlene; another daughter, Michele; a granddaughter; and a great-granddaughter.
Services have been held.
