Bob Zigman: A force for good

I was saddened to read of the passing of Robert S. Zigman (“Zigman was influential PR man,” Oct. 14).

While your article covered much of Zigman’s contributions to the Milwaukee business community, I can attest to what he did quietly behind the scenes.

In the mid-1990s, I was a young police captain and was given the job of heading the Milwaukee Police Athletic League (PAL). This central city anti-crime program was widely employed throughout the East Coast of the United States and was taking root once again in Milwaukee after an absence of many years.

Our plan was to build a spectacular building in one of the high-crime areas to give underprivileged youth a safe place to go and grow under the watchful, nurturing eye of Milwaukee police officers. This idea was viewed as crazy by many, but the project was completed just as Zigman had envisioned it.

It was the leadership of Zigman and his close friends Jack Ladke, Roy LeBudde, Bob Braeger and Dan Meehan — all great Milwaukeeans in their own right — which made this $7 million gift to Milwaukee’s central city possible.

While the PAL Program eventually was significantly diminished, the facility remains, now under the ownership of the Childrens’ Outing Association (COA), but it continues the mission for which it was built.

What Zigman did for the business community pales in comparison to what he did for our youth. Influential PR man, yes, but Zigman’s lasting legacy to this community lives on in the building on 24th and Burleigh where hundreds of youth continue to play, learn and grow — safely.

Peter Pochowski Milwaukee