Vera Paktor

Vera Paktor (1949–1995) was a Hungarian-American journalist and maritime administrator.

Biography Paktor was born on June 14, 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. In 1956, her family emigrated from Hungary, settling in Chicago. In 1994, she was a candidate for the presidential appointment of administrator for the commission. In 1982, she was elected the first female president of the Propeller Club of the United States, a trade organization for maritime industry executives. As a writer for Seaway Review, she authored more than 100 articles on maritime subjects. Her 1992 book, Federal Regulations and the Freight Forwarders, was a manual for the shipping industry concerning freight forwarding and was translated into Spanish in 1995. In the early 1980s, she was a crew member on a vintage tugboat that was brought to Chicago via the St. Lawrence Seaway for the Chicago Yacht Club.

In politics, Paktor managed campaigns for local and state politicians and was a candidate for Cook County commissioner in 1994. She was appointed to Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Council on Manpower and Economic Advisory Board as its youngest member. She also served on the boards of several Jewish community centers and congregations in the Chicago area, including the Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center, Beth Hillel Congregation, Temple Beth El, and the Mayer Kaplan Jewish Community Center.

Paktor was married to Allen Gross. She died on November 15, 1995, in Skokie, Illinois.