Businessman Robert Pritzker, who founded a global industrial conglomerate, has died. He was 85.
Pritzker's executive assistant, Becky Spooner, said Friday that Pritzker died Thursday evening at a Chicago nursing facility. He had Parkinson's Disease.
Pritzker's family founded the Hyatt Hotel chain.
Robert Pritzker founded Chicago-based Marmon Group, an industrial conglomerate of manufacturing and service companies. The company was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2008.
Company officials say his business acumen helped its revenues grow into the billions of dollars over 50 years. Pritzker graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with an industrial engineering degree in 1946.
Pritzker was the brother of Jay Pritzker, who was founder and chairman of the Hyatt Hotel chain and among the richest people in the United States when he died in 1999.
