Cindy Pritzker
Marian "Cindy" Pritzker was an American philanthropist. She headed the Chicago Public Library board and co-founded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. As the wife of Jay Pritzker, the co-founder of Hyatt Hotels, she was the matriarch of the Pritzker family.
Early life, family, and education
Pritzker was born on December 15, 1923 to Judge Hugo Friend, a Cook County circuit judge, and Sadie Cohn Friend. She grew up in Kenwood on the South Side of Chicago and attended Hyde Park High School. She graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa.Philanthropy
In 1984, Pritzker was appointed to the Chicago Public Library Board by Mayor Harold Washington. She served as the board's president and led an effort to build the Harold Washington Library Center, which opened in 1991. Pritzker was also the founding chairwoman of the Chicago Public Library Foundation.Together with her husband, she co-founded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979. Following her husband's death in 1999, she commissioned the architect Frank Gehry to design the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
In 1996, she and her husband received the National Building Museum's Honor Award.
Personal life and death
She married billionaire businessman Jay Pritzker, a founder of Hyatt, on August 31, 1947 and had five children, including Thomas Pritzker, John Pritzker, Daniel Pritzker, and Gigi Pritzker. She and her husband met as teenagers while vacationing at their families' lake houses in Eagle River, Wisconsin. Her husband died in 1999.Pritzker was the aunt of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, whom she raised following the death of his father, Donald Pritzker.
She died on March 15, 2025 at the age of 101.