This Comiskey helped Sox soar
Charles Albert "Chuck" Comiskey II, grandson and namesake of the Chicago White Sox founder and a former front-office executive and co-owner during the "Go Go Sox" years in the 1950s, has died. He was 81.
Comiskey died in his sleep Sunday at his home in Hinsdale, according to the Gibbons Elliston Funeral Home, citing a statement from his family. Further details on his death were not disclosed.
While his family name is one of the best-known in Chicago sports history, Comiskey left his own mark in helping to successfully remake the team en route to its first American League pennant in 40 years in 1959.
Fans attending Monday's game between the White Sox and Tampa Bay at U.S. Cellular Field, formerly Comiskey Park, observed a moment of silence before the game.
White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf credited Comiskey with playing an important role in developing the resurgent Sox teams of the '50s during his stint in the front office.
"Chuck represented the great tradition of Comiskey family ownership of the White Sox," Reinsdorf said in a statement. "A friend to many of us and a tremendously nice guy, I will always recall his excitement and joy when we won the World Series in 2005. It was an honor for the organization to present him with a World Series championship ring."
Born in Chicago on Nov. 19, 1925, Comiskey grew up on the South Side and was 7 years old when his grandfather Charlie Comiskey, who founded the White Sox in 1901, died.
"Once in a while he would throw me in the back seat of the car and take me to the ballpark," he said in a 2004 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "I would be sent down to the concessions department. Actually as a kid that's where I first started. That kept me out of trouble."
The lanky Comiskey aspired to be a great first baseman like his grandfather and dreamed of being the first player-owner in baseball history, according to his cousin, Grace Patricia Ryan Samfillippo. He played football and baseball at De La Salle High School, just east of Comiskey Park on 35th Street, and went on to play football at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota before serving in the Navy.
Comiskey joined the family business and was named vice president in 1948 before going on to be co-general manager with John Rigney from 1956-58 and club president from 1957-59, preceding Bill Veeck in that job.
"He made some of the big changes of this ballclub from being a team that was quite down in the '30s and '40s to a team in the '50s and '60s that was a pennant contender and a great, fan-pleasing ballclub," Billy Pierce, the White Sox' ace left-handed pitcher from that era, told the Chicago Tribune.
Comiskey later became involved in real estate and also owned a taxi and limousine company.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Donna Jo Curran Comiskey; their four children, Colleen Comiskey Kelley, Charles A. Comiskey III, Patti Comiskey Slaga and Francis "Beau" Comiskey; and seven grandchildren.
His funeral is scheduled for Wednesday at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church in Hinsdale, followed by burial at Bronswood Cemetery.