Jack and Dollie Galter

Jack Galter emigrated from Russia to the Chicago area with his family. As a young man, he became a professional drummer, playing with Benny Goodman and other luminaries of the Jazz Age.

Sarah Miriam Schiff, also known as "Dollie" from the time she was a very young girl, was born in Chicago, spent part of her youth in San Francisco, and then returned to Chicago where she attended Harrison High School. Soon after, she met Jack and they were married in 1925. Dollie used to say that hanging around with Goodman and his band members were some of the happiest times for the two of them . . . because the musicians were ordinary people, just like she and Jack. But the Galters were anything but ordinary.

Although his love of music never waned, Jack chose to keep music as his hobby while becoming a maverick entrepreneur, founding several companies including the Spartus Corporation, which was once the world's largest clock manufacturer. With Dollie by his side, offering help and encouragement, Jack's long career also included great success as a real estate developer. The Galters' lives truly were the quintessential American Dream.

Dollie often joked that her husband made the money and she gave it away. Jack said, "God has been good to us, so we have been good to others." The Galter Foundation was formed in 1943 and, together, Jack and Dollie donated more than $100 million, much of it to medical institutions - health being a focus of Dollie's interests. Among the many Chicago organizations that their generosity impacted were the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Lambs Farm, Maryville Academy, WTTW-Channel 11, the Newberry Library and Swedish Covenant Hospital, to name a few.

Swedish Covenant Hospital's Galter LifeCenter was the first hospital-based health and fitness facility in the country, named in recognition of the Galters' generosity. The Galter LifeCenter helped to revive the neighborhood of Albany Park and continues to be a model facility for health, wellness, rehabilitation and physical therapy. In addition, Swedish Covenant Hospital's Jack and Dollie Galter Medical Pavilion houses clinical services and programs such as ambulatory care, family practice care, patient testing, outpatient pharmacy services, and inpatient and outpatient surgery services that are offered to thousands of patients per year.

Jack and Dollie Galter have had a tremendous presence in Chicago, their names synonymous with "philanthropy." It was the Galters' generosity toward Swedish Covenant Hospital that helped the hospital to enhance and expand its healthcare services to its patients and to the community. And it was the Galters' endorsement of the hospital that helped to give Swedish Covenant Hospital its deserved recognition as the premier healthcare facility on Chicago's north and northwest sides.

Jack and Dollie Galter used to reminisce about their earlier days, associating with "regular people," as they considered themselves to be. But their compassion toward others was nothing less than extraordinary. And their legacy of compassionate philanthropy lives on today, as millions of people continue to be profoundly affected by their generosity.

Swedish Covenant Hospital is proud to honor Jack and Dollie Galter posthumously with its 2005 Spirit of Compassion Award at its 50th Anniversary Gala. And the hospital is grateful to the Galters' grandson, Robbie Joseph, for graciously accepting the award on their behalf.

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