In Tribute: Mickey Resnick, a stalwart on boards near and far, dies at 95

Longtime North Shore resident Mickey Resnick was a man for all seasons.

He is remembered as an accomplished member of the financial law department of All State Insurance Co. who became senior vice president, treasurer and chief investment officer; a dedicated member and leader of innumerable civic organizations; and a former thoroughbred owner and student of racing.

But most of all he is remembered as a consummate gentleman.

“He was such a calm and reasonable man, listening carefully, understanding deeply and communicating his views such a calm, logical way,” remembered Michael Rothstein of Wilmette, who served with Resnick on the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League.

“I never saw the man become visibly angry or dismissive of anyone in a discussion even on contentious issues. He felt very strongly on issues at times but he had a way of communicating that kept everyone in the discussion. His patience, charm and wit made him effective as a board member and a national commissioner.”

“Mickey was just a fine person,” said Jon Dante of Chicago who worked closely with Resnick for many years at Allstate. “When we met he was in the financial law department and I was in the investment department. He got involved in the acquisition of an insurance company in England. Mickey and I worked out that project together and that’s how our friendship got started.

“We shared a lot of time together and he was very instrumental in the success of my career.

“I don’t think Mickey ever said an unkind word about anybody. I will miss the guy forever.”

Surrounded by his family, and following a short illness, Resnick died of natural causes on his 95th birthday, July 13, at his Winnetka home.

His widow, Alicia, said the couple moved to Winnetka “in about 2017” after having lived in Wilmette since 1969.

Funeral services were held at Beth Emet Synagogue in Evanston and interment followed at Skokie’s Memorial Park Cemetery.

In addition to Alicia, he is survived by their three sons, Hugh of Greenwood, Indiana, Clay (Jennifer) of Bristol, Rhode Island, and David (Shannon) of Chicago, and five grandchildren, Hannah, Abigail, Cole, Paige and Max.

Preceding him in death were his parents, Henry C. and Sybil Glick Resnick; sisters Suzanne Golden and Jane Weinstein; and daughter-in-law Victoria Resnick.

Myron Jay (Mickey) Resnick was born in Louisville, grew up there and graduated from Male High School.

He went on to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (class of 1953) and was a member of Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan (Class of 1956).

After finishing school he served as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps in Stuttgart, Germany.

Recalling the antisemitic Nazi regime of just over a decade earlier, David asked his father how he, as a Jew, was treated.

“The people were very nice,” was Mickey’s one sentence reply.

When Resnick returned from service he joined the Financial Law Department at Allstate in Northbrook. After rising through the ranks he led the insurance company’s initial public offering in 1993.

Mickey and Alicia met in 1966 after she’d become an accomplished singer.

“I was 29 at the time and my brother, Jim Ward, and Mickey’s dear friend, the late Bill Walsh, both worked at Allstate and they fixed us up,” Alicia remembered.

“I was a band singer at the Willowbrook Ballroom, and I said: ‘Jim, I can‘t take a night off.’

“Jim said: ‘Take a night off.’ I did and I’m forever glad I did. We married a year later in December, 1967 and moved from Mickey’s charming apartment in Evanston to our home in Wilmette in 1969. I quit singing to be home at night and raise our family.

“We rented our Wilmette home when Allstate sent Mickey to England from 1979 to 1981. It was a wonderful adventure.”

When Resnick was 65, he retired from Allstate and spent five years working with Ray Tibbetts to form a virtual insurance company. The company could not perpetuate its initial success and he retired at age 70 to immerse himself in civic and philanthropic endeavors locally and nationally.

“His biggest love was the Anti-Defamation League,” Alicia said. “He was a recipient of their highest award.”

Over a span of many years, he served in a number of ADL capacities. Among them were board chairman of the Upper Midwest Region and member of the National Global Advisory Council.

Rothstein met Resnick in the late 1990s. They were both from Louisville, and they discovered Resnick went to school with Rothstein’s father, Joe.

“At that point Mickey took me under his wing,” Rothstein said. “He got me on the board and he was someone I worked with on the board and we were on committees together rewriting the bylaws. He brought a wealth of experience from the private sector and provided that experience to the ADL.

“We grew very close.”

Resnick’s commitment to the organization manifested itself in its “missions” to Israel and other foreign countries. In these other countries, the delegates would study the country’s Jewish life and determine if there was lingering anti-semitism.

“On a trip to Poland there was this darling girl named MK and we became friends,” Alicia said. “Then, her husband, JB (Pritzker), joined the trip and impressed us as being a very nice guy. When we got back to Wilmette we had them come for dinner one night. After he became governor, I said to Mickey: ‘Someday we might remember it as the night the future president had dinner at our house.’”

In addition to their Anti-Defamation League involvement, Resnick and Pritzker served together on the Aurora University Board.

“Mickey got on the board of George Williams College because Allstate was a big supporter and he became chairman of the board, and after George Williams was sold to Aurora University he stayed on the board,” Alicia said.

“The Benedictine Sisters of Chicago were another of his favorite organizations. He sat on the board for a long time and they gave him their highest award, the Spirit of St. Benedict Award, twice. He loved those nuns and they loved him.”

Resnick was involved with many other organizations at one time or another. He served on the Board of Advisers of the Institute of Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and was on the adjunct faculty at John Marshall Law School. He was chairman of the Family Service Center of Wilmette, Kenilworth, Glencoe and Northbrook and served on the board of the Chicago Urban League, the Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. and West Side Affordable Housing.

He also was practicing member of Beth Emet Synagogue.

Resnick’s ecumenical spirit was in evidence for many years at midnight Mass on Christmas Eve when he would go to St. Francis Xavier Church in Wilmette and sit in the front row to hear Alicia sing in the choir.

Another Catholic connection was the late Walsh, a former seminarian, who became Resnick’s most cherished friend during the years they worked closely together at Allstate.

It was Walsh who got him involved in thoroughbred racing as an owner for many years and they often went to the Kentucky Derby together.

One of the horses they owned in partnership was Roundhouse, who in 1973 became a footnote in racing history when he went to Woodbine in suburban Toronto and ran against Secretariat in the Canadian International, the final race of the thoroughbred immortal’s career.

Secretariat went out in a blaze of glory, winning the 1 5/8 mile race by 6 ½ lengths, while Roundhousde was one of 11 also-rans, but for the Resnicks the memory of being involved in the last race in the career of the so-called “superhorse” was priceless.

After Resnick ended his involvement in racing as an owner he continued to be an active participant in the game as a horseplayer in his 90s, studying the past performances and engaging in legalized phone betting.

And in the game of life he went out a winner.

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