Harry Chaddick

Harry Francis Chaddick (August 27, 1902 – May 30, 1994) was a multimillionaire philanthropist, real estate developer, and former Director of Zoning of Chicago, Illinois. Chaddick was born and grew up in the West Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Career Chaddick started his career as a stock boy, then worked as an assistant pharmacist in a Chicago drug store.

Shipping In 1924, at age 22, he bought a used Ford truck for $350 and entered the shipping business. He built and expanded his business, using innovative methods such as "piggyback" transportation, integrating rail shipping and truck shipping. Also, he was the first to use two-way radios in his trucks. In this position, Chaddick produced the city's first Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance in 1957. This was seen as a major step toward modernization, and it encouraged retail and high-rise development. He also developed the Brickyard shopping center, Forest Park Mall, and Addison Mall. In Palm Springs, California, Tennis Club Hotel of Palm Springs, the Palm Springs Country Club and the residential neighborhood Andreas Hills. The couple's high-profile friends included Mayor Richard Daley and Jay McMullen, husband of Mayor Jane Byrne. She was held in the desert, east of Joshua Tree National Park, for three days. During the ransom exchange, Elaine heard gunshots – shots exchanged between a kidnapper on a motorcycle and police in a helicopter, during a 10-mile chase. She walked through the desert until she came to a car, where her husband waited with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These events inspired the 2008 book Night of the Full Moon, by Herb Clough, the former FBI agent in charge of Chaddick's kidnapping case. A feature film, Do It Or Die, based on that book, premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2017.

Philanthropy The Chaddicks began to focus on philanthropy in the 1980s and 1990s. They established the Harry F. Chaddick and Elaine Chaddick Foundation in 1986, to fund medical, scientific, educational, and religious organizations. The Chaddicks' endowments fund the Chaddick Institute of Urban Development at DePaul University. Harry Chaddick also contributed to the establishment of The Salvation Army's social service center on Chicago's South Side.

Harry Chaddick wrote and published Chaddick! Success Against the Odds: The Autobiography of Harry F. Chaddick in 1990.

In 1996, DePaul University Special Collections and Archives obtained The Harry F. Chaddick Papers, including documents related to Chaddick's work in zoning and retail shopping development in Chicago, as well as other papers, photographs, and biographical information about Chaddick.

Chaddick died in hospice care at Whitehall of Deerfield on May 30, 1994, aged 91.