Kurtis Froedtert (June 3, 1887 - December 6, 1951) was an American industrialist and benefactor from

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Early life and education

Froedtert was born June 3, 1887, in the basement of a building near 6th and Vliet Street in Milwaukee (his parents insisted on a

midwife A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and Infant, newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughou ...

-assisted birth, feeling that such events were too intimate for doctors). He attended the German-English Academy and the

Michigan Military Academy The Michigan Military Academy, also known as M.M.A., was an all-boys military prep school in Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, Michigan. It was founded in 1877 by J. Sumner Rogers and closed in 1908 due to bankruptcy. Some journalists ...

, graduating the latter as

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

in 1904.

Career

Taking over the malting company

Froedtert originally planned to attend medical school, and was offered a scholarship to 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 ...

; but his father's health problems compelled him to stay close to home. He took over the family's malt company, the Froedtert Malting Company (later Froedtert Grain and Malting) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1915 after his father's death, and remained at its head until his death. His company processed germinated

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

into

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

, primarily for the use of the

brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...

industry. In its time, Froedtert Malting Company was the largest such firm in the world.

Other interests

In the 1920s, Froedtert was known as a breeder of prize milch goats. By 1936, he was speculating in real estate, buying out the Sunny Isles development on

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

; after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he branched out into

real estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parce ...

, developing the now-defunct Southgate and Northgate malls as well as Westgate, which was soon renamed

Mayfair Mall Mayfair Mall is a shopping mall located on Mayfair Road (Wisconsin Highway 100, Highway 100) between North Avenue and Center Street in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, United States. It serves the Greater Milwaukee area, also Wisconsin's premier shopping C ...

Personal life

He married Mary Helf in 1927. They had two daughters, Mazie and Suzanne. Mary died in 1990 at the age of 91. In 1946, the March 11 disappearance of his 16-year-old daughter Suzanne from Edgewood Academy, a Catholic girls' boarding school in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

, made nationwide headlines. She was eventually discovered living in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

with a 24-year-old

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; an HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

from Madison and working in a candy store, after a nationwide announcement of a search for her had been made on radio by

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and c ...

. Suzanne later eloped to

Crown Point, Indiana Crown Point is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,884 per the 2023 American Community Survey. The city was incorporated in 1868. On October 31, 1834, Solon Robinson and his family became ...

, to marry a shoe store

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

Death and endowment

Upon his death on December 6, 1951, from complications of

cancer of the stomach Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

, Froedtert's will established a trust which designated $11 million to go towards the creation of what would become Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital. 60% of his estate, which included $2 million worth of Miami Beach property, went into the trust; the remaining 40% to his widow and his daughter Mazie."Froedtert Estate Totals 11 Millions; Big Property on Beach". ''

The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...

'', October 23, 1953, p. 6-A.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Froedtert, Kurtis 1887 births 1951 deaths American brewers American businesspeople in real estate Businesspeople from Milwaukee Maltsters 20th-century American businesspeople