Ran packaging business, then traveled for decades as retiree
Jerome “Bud” Hoffberg worked in his family’s packaging and promotional business for 50 years, 25 of them as president and CEO, before retiring more than 30 years ago to a life of travel and time with family and friends that kept him active well past his 103rd birthday.
There were three keys to Hoffberg’s long life, according to his friend and longtime accountant, David Collis.
“The first thing he would do is exercise — six days a week,” said Collis, who called Hoffberg his mentor in both life and business. “He would say, ‘Dave, I do it today so I can do it tomorrow. I’m scared to stop.’”
Hoffberg was “always positive” and stressed the importance of family and friends, Collis said.
Hoffberg, 103, died of lung cancer Oct. 29 in Three Crowns Park in Evanston, where he lived independently for the last 11 years, according to his daughter, Ronna Hoffberg. Before that, he and his late wife, Bettye, who died in 2010, were longtime residents of Winnetka.
He was born in Chicago in 1916 and grew up first in Rogers Park and later in the Lakeview neighborhood. From the age of 11 through high school, he attended what was then St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin. He remained associated with the school for the rest of his life.
He went on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but left before graduating to join Petra Manufacturing, which had been founded in 1933 by his mother, Sara.
His business career was interrupted by World War II service with the Army, where in two overseas tours he made the rank of captain and worked in logistics in both England and France, his daughter said. His time overseas left him especially fond of England and its people, said his son, Norman, who followed his father as president and CEO of Petra.
“An Anglophile — no question about it,” his son said.
At Petra, Hoffberg early on recognized the value of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a plastic that the company uses for custom binders and in other packaging applications. He also was an early adopter of Velcro after its development in Switzerland and commercial introduction in the late 1950s.
In retirement, Hoffberg traveled extensively, his children said, including a number of trips to England.
“The most notable thing about my father — he just never had a bad day,” his daughter said. “He wouldn’t allow it. He was always looking ahead.”
When Hoffberg was considering a move to independent living at Three Crowns, Collis said he worked up some financial scenarios for his longtime client.
Even with no growth in his investments, Collis told Hoffberg his money wouldn’t run out until he was 108 years old.
Hoffberg’s response? “Dave, what am I going to do then?”
Hoffberg leaves no other immediate survivors.
A celebration of his life will be at 3 p.m. Sunday in Three Crowns Park, 2323 McDaniel Ave., Evanston.