Memorial set for longtime Des Plaines businessman
Roger Spiegler spent 40 years managing the men's department at the legendary downtown Des Plaines department store bearing his family's name.
It was an era of mom-and-pop customer service, when your salesman knew your name, knew what you liked and made sure you were getting a good piece of merchandise for the right price.
"He looked for value," said daughter-in-law Fran Spiegler. "It was important to him to sell a good product."
But it wasn't just about the quality of the product, said Allan Spiegler, one of his three sons. "It was also about relationships."
Spiegler, a longtime Des Plaines and Mount Prospect resident and co-owner of the family business, died April 23 of Alzheimer's disease and complications related to the flu at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He was 92.
A memorial celebration will be held in his honor Friday at East Lawn Palms Mortuary in Tucson.
After graduating from Maine Township High School in 1942, Spiegler entered the U.S. Army. His 42nd Rainbow Division liberated Munich and the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
When he returned, he got a marketing degree from the University of Illinois, and entered the family business. He helped run the department store at 1467 Ellinwood St. with his dad Walter, uncle Louis, brother David, and cousin Bob, who died last December. Roger's grandfather, Louis Spiegler Sr., opened the store in 1900. It closed in 1992.
Roger Spiegler was involved in the community. He was the Exalted Ruler of the Des Plaines Elks in 1959-1960, a member of the Lions Club, and president of the Des Plaines Chamber of Commerce in 1974.
He lived in Des Plaines in the 1950s, then spent more than 40 years on Elm Street in Mount Prospect before he and wife, Elaine, moved to an Arlington Heights retirement home, Fran Spiegler said.
The couple met in high school, and were married almost 65 years until Elaine's death in 2012.
And even though Spiegler moved to Arizona in 2014, "his heart was always in Des Plaines," Fran Spiegler said.
"When we would come to Illinois and visit with him, we went to the Elks Club a few times for dinner," she said. "We would drive through Des Plaines and he'd look at all the old places. He'd remember all of them."
Donations in Roger Spiegler's name can be made to the Des Plaines Elks, 495 Lee St.