By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-17 14:36:29 | Updated at 2025-03-18 00:23:17
9 hours ago
Billionaire Hyatt heiress Cindy Pritzker has died at the age of 101, her family announced.
Marian 'Cindy' Friend Pritzker, the widow of Hyatt Hotels founder Jay Pritzker, passed away on Saturday, according to a family representative who did not reveal her cause of death.
The matriarch to one of Chicago's most powerful families leaves behind four children and 14 grandchildren. Pritzker was also the aunt of Illinois' Democrat governor JB Pritzker, with the family long involved in liberal politics.
'Cindy touched the lives of many, serving as a role model for resilience, determination and the power of laughter,' her family said in the statement provided to the Chicago Sun Times.
'She met challenges with unwavering resolve, bringing her energy and bold spirit to every endeavor. Her legacy lives on in the institutions she shaped, the city she loved and the family she cherished.'
Pritzker, a prominent philanthropist throughout her life, headed the Chicago Public Library Board and co-founded the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
Marian 'Cindy' Friend Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt heiress, died on Saturday. She is seen in 2023 posing with a 1984 Andy Warhol portrait of herself
The Pritzkers were honored by president Bill Clinton at the White House for creating the Pritzker Architecture Prize
One of Pritzker's homes, worth $20million, in California. It's not clear where she died
President Bill Clinton honored the Pritzkers in the 1990s at the White House for the prize's staying power and contribution to American culture.
Pritzker and her husband were architecture aficionados and helped create Chicago touchstones such as the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park.
She has also been credited with being a force for good in Chicago's public library system, increasing its book budget in the late 1990s.
Pritzker was part of a group that chose the architectural team that built the Harold Washington Library Center - its auditorium bears her name, as does a part across the street.
Andy Warhol painted her image in 1984 for a silkscreen portrait that now hangs in the Chicago Athletic Association hotel’s rooftop lounge, which is named after her.
Pritzker grew up as the daughter of a county judge in the south side of Chicago.
She met Jay Pritzker as a teenager in Wisconsin and they were married until his death from a heart attack in 1999.
Jay Pritzker and his brother Robert also founded the Marmon Group, which became a $15billion empire of over 200 companies.
Pritzker's daughter Gigi Pritzker Pucker told the Sun-Times: 'We plan to celebrate her life at the library later to honor her importance to the city as an individual who was loving, fun, deep, as well as being in possession of a steely inside.
Jay and Cindy Pritzker are seen together before he died from a heart attack in 1999
Pritzker's daughter Gigi Pritzker Pucker said: 'We plan to celebrate her life at the library later to honor her importance to the city'
'After all, she was a South Side girl who was the daughter of a Chicago judge who taught her a sense of justice and fairness and a clear sense of morality...
'But above all, she was fun and loved to laugh and had no trouble telling people where she stood. We adored her.'
The Pritzker family will hold a private service.
They have requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Chicago Public Library Foundation or the Nancy Pritzker Laboratory at Stanford University.
