Jack Solomon, an attorney, art dealer and entrepreneur who was instrumental in developing the Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Association, died on Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012, in Las Vegas. He was 83.
The cause was complications from prostate cancer, according to his wife Carolyn.
An attorney who turned his love of art into a successful business venture, Solomon founded Circle Fine Art corporation in 1964 in Chicago, publishing and selling limited-edition fine-art graphics that appealed to a wide range of tastes. After he and Carolyn — also his business partner — sold Circle Fine Art in 1993, they founded S2 Art Group, Ltd. and its retail arm, Jack Gallery, and soon moved from Chicago to Las Vegas. Solomon fervently believed that art should be available to everyone.
Jack Avrum Solomon was born in Omaha, Neb., on Oct. 25, 1928, the second of three children, to John and Matilda (Bienstock) Solomon. He earned his Bachelor of Science and LL.B. degrees cum laude in 1950 and 1952 from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he was also active in writing musical revues and as a national champion debater. He went on to the University of Michigan School of Law as a Cook Fellow, where he earned an LL.M in 1953.
Solomon began his legal career as an associate with a corporate law firm in Chicago, rising to become the senior managing partner of Solomon, Rosenfeld, Elliott, Stiefel and Engerman. Solomon was the firm’s specialist in art and entertainment law. Among his high-profile clients, he counted Gloria Swanson, George Raft and Margaret O’Brien. At the firm, Solomon was instrumental in bringing Toyota to the Midwest and in providing counsel and investments for Mogen David Wine, to name only two. Additionally, he founded Piper’s Alley Corporation, helping to re-develop Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood into a Victorian-themed shopping center. Eventually he left his law firm to devote himself to his art business full-time.
Among his many civic activities, Solomon served as president of Congregation B’nai Torah in Highland Park, Ill., trustee of the Drexel Home for the Aged in Chicago. president of the Fine Art Publishing Association and president of the Las Vegas Arts District.
In his business, as in life, Solomon never sat idly on his achievements: new ideas and possibilities never ceased to excite him, he never tired of the hard work that could bring them to realization, and he never ran out of the delight in sharing his enthusiasms (which, beyond the business realm, included horses — in artworks and on the track — jazz, especially Gershwin, and his beloved Bichon Frise, Picasso.)
In addition to his wife Carolyn, Solomon is survived by four children from his first marriage to Josephine Kleiman Solomon, formerly of Kansas City, and their spouses, Debby and Bob Simon, Overland Park, Alisa Solomon and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark, New York City, Michael Solomon, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Rena Solomon and Mark Bandy, Evanston, Ill.; and three grandchildren, Benjamin, Alex, and Jorie Simon.
Solomon was preceded in death by his sisters, Arlene Shattil and Sally Dworkin.
The funeral took place in Chicago on Thursday, Aug. 23, at Shalom Memorial Park. A memorial service in Las Vegas will follow with details to be announced. Contributions in his memory may be made to the The Hope Foundation, conducting clinical trials to treat and combat cancer, The Hope Foundation, 24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, Suite 3600 A, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 (http://thehopefoundation.org/), or to the Epilepsy Therapy Project, P.O. Box 742, Middlesburg, VA 20118 (http://www.epilepsy.com).