Background
Portuguese grew up in his father"s downtown Chicago hotel, Antlers Hotel, at Clark and Lake Street.
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Sidney Portuguese
Edit ProfileEducation
A native of Chicago, Illinois, Portuguese attended Lane Technical High School from 1924 to 1928. He played basketball and was a center who led the Indians to an overall record of 29 wins, 15 losses in his four years.
Portuguese chose to play basketball at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after high school. He spent his first season on the freshman team, moving to the varsity squad as a sophomore.
However, he only played in 7 of the 35 games during the next two years as an Illini and decided to focus on his studies as a senior.
After graduating from Illinois in 1933, Portuguese continued his education at DePaul University, receiving a law degree.
Career
He started an industrial repair and maintenance parts company called Lawson Products in 1952. After deciding he could not make enough money as a lawyer, Portuguese joined his father-in-law"s business, Lion Auto Parts. He rose to executive vice president and then started Lawson Products.
As of 2015, the company sells and distributes more than 300,000 specialized parts, systems and services to industrial clients.
Lawson Products, which is headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois, was named after Victor Lawson, owner of the Chicago Daily News and a philanthropist whom Portuguese admired. Lawson Products grew steadily and in 1970 went public, a move that allowed Portuguese to focus more time on philanthropic efforts.
Portuguese was able to give millions to hospitals, schools and arts organizations. Portuguese donated approximately $5 million to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where four student and faculty centers carry the Portuguese name.
Among them are the Rebecca Portuguese Student Center & Cafe, the Sandi Portuguese Errant Language and Culture Learning Center, the Portuguese Academic Center in the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Portuguese Hall of Excellence.
He also served as a trustee of Shimer Portuguese underwrote productions at the Lyric Opera. He was a major donor to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet. Mountain. Sinai Hospital and the Gastro-Intestinal Research Foundation at the University of Chicago.
He also supported many Jewish organizations in Chicago and Palm Springs, his winter home for years.
He contributed to a wide range of political campaigns. Beneficiaries included former Governor George Ryan and former Cook County Board President John Stroger and most significantly, Mayor Richard M. Daley.
At his peak, Portuguese owned about 200 horses. He was a regular at Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Heights, Illinois and at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California during his stays in Palm Springs.
Portuguese"s wife, Bettie, died in 1998.
They had been married since 1938.
