Gerald S. Gidwitz (July 16, 1906 – July 11, 2006) was a co-founder of the cosmetics and salon parlour firm

Helene Curtis Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. was an American cosmetics and beauty parlor products firm based in Chicago. The company acquired a hair-coloring line through the acquisition of a competitor business. Later the retailer diversified into the field of ...

Industries.

Early life

Gidwitz was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. His father was a cotton farmer and general store owner in

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. When Gidwitz was 12 years old, his family moved to

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, where his father started a business that made paper boxes.

Helene Curtis

After graduating from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1927, Gidwitz worked at National Minerals Company with his brother, Willard. The Gidwitzes father had acquired the troubled beauty products company in settlement of a debt National Minerals owed the Gidwitz box company. National Minerals' main product was a clay for beauty facials. Gerald and Willard Gidwitz helped refocus the company's product line toward beauty parlor supplies, including permanent wave solutions and hair dryers. In the late 1940s the company began marketing home beauty products, including shampoos and hair sprays. The company's first consumer product was a hair cream marketed under the

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label. National Minerals was renamed Helene Curtis Industries in 1956, when the company went public. Willard Gidwitz ran day-to-day operations, while Gerald Gidwitz focused on acquisitions and creating other companies. Gerald served as chairman of the company from 1952 to 1996, when it was bought by

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

. Gidwitz also founded or acquired companies in other economic sectors. In the 1980s he launched a company providing building supplies, Continental Materials Corporation. He also bought two companies that manufactured farm equipment.

Political life

In the 1950s Gidwitz founded the anti-communist Education for Survival Foundation, which had the aim of making "every school district in the nation aware of the grim fact that we are engaged in a battle of the classroom with

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

." During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, Gidwitz supported groups that assisted defectors from

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

countries. In 1962, he launched a monthly "Cold War digest" that provided information on military, political and technological aspects of the Cold War. Gidwitz served on the board of

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university enrolls arou ...

. Gidwitz funded literacy programs through Roosevelt University and worked with the National Planning Association, which creates programs to improve education and promote literacy. During the 1940s, he set up after-hours classes for workers at Helene Curtis. In 2002, Gidwitz gave a grant to

National-Louis University National Louis University (NLU) is a private university, private nonprofit university with its main campus in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. NLU enrolls undergraduate and graduate students in more than 60 programs across its four colleges. It has lo ...

to create the Gidwitz Center for Urban Planning and Community Development. He died on July 11, 2006, of congestive heart failure, five days shy of his 100th birthday.

References

* Fornek, Scott. (2006, July 12). ''Built Helene Curtis into $1 bil. business''. The Chicago Sun-Times * Associated Press. (2006, July 14). ''Gerald Gidwitz, 99, Helene Curtis Founder''. The New York Times, p. C9 * Jensen, Trevor. (2006, July 15). ''Gerald Gidwitz, 99; Helped Start Cosmetics Maker Helene Curtis''. The Los Angeles Times {{DEFAULTSORT:Gidwitz, Gerald 1906 births 2006 deaths University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American businesspeople