Marvin Wortell, who owned a precision metal fabricating company, was on the board of the Chicago Maritime Society and helped set up the group’s museum, which was first on the Near West Side and is now on the South Side.
“He was a totally giving guy who got us through a really tough period, and based on what he did, we actually were able to get people interested and move (the museum) to a better space,” said Jerry Thomas, the society’s president emeritus.
Wortell, 100, died of congestive heart failure May 4 at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview, said his daughter, Holly. He had been a longtime Wilmette resident and prior to that had lived in Skokie.
Born in Michigan City, Ind., Wortell grew up in the Northwest Side Albany Park neighborhood and graduated from Lane Tech High School.
Wortell got a job with a tool and die firm, and soon transferred to the company’s engineering department. He worked for local manufacturers until 1961, when he took out a $4,000 loan to start Triton Metal Products, a precision metal fabricating and stamping company that made and sold metal chassis that would hold vacuum tubes for products made by the consumer electronics and defense industries.
Triton Metal Products first was located at 3520 N. Halsted St. In 1968, the firm moved to a 24,000-square-foot building at 1111 W. Cornelia Ave.
In the mid-1970s, Wortell renamed the company Triton Industries and moved its operations to a 100,000-square-foot facility at 1020 N. Kolmar Ave. in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood. The firm manufactured products used in fax machines, GPS devices and copy machines, and customers were in the medical, office and defense industries.
Triton peaked at more than 110 employees in 2008 and today has about 65 workers. Its newest product is a stainless steel pure water dispenser for office buildings and car dealerships.
Wortell was a forceful advocate for domestic manufacturing, and he often was frustrated by an inability to find qualified workers. His desire to see more development of skilled workers helped lead to him to co-found the National Institute for Metalworking Skills to push for a comprehensive curriculum for community college manufacturing departments.
Wortell served in the 1980s as chairman of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association’s small manufacturers action council, and he also was head of the American Metal Stampers Association in the 1970s.
In 1998, the Illinois Institute of Technology, which Wortell had attended, named him its manufacturer of the year for his contributions to manufacturing education.
After retiring from Triton Industries in 2005, Wortell focused on outside interests that included woodcarving, collecting nautical artifacts, sailing aboard his 40-foot sloop and spending time with fellow Jaguar automobile enthusiasts.
He was on the board of the Chicago Maritime Society from 2007 to 2015. He helped create a temporary museum for the society at 310 S. Racine Ave. to display the society’s nautical artifacts collection. And he also was involved in fundraising for the creation of the group’s permanent display, a museum that opened in June 2016 inside the Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W. 35th St.
“At the time (he joined our board), we were in a space that was really just a storage warehouse and he said, ‘Why don’t we make this storehouse into a museum?’” Thomas recalled. “He said, ‘I have a guy who works for me, and I have some money I can contribute,’ and we made it happen. After a couple of years, we converted our warehouse into a showcase so we could show potential donors what we might offer if we had a real space, and we actually were able to get people interested and move to a better space, which we’re still in.”
Wortell, who first took up woodworking in high school, handcrafted much of the furniture in his home. Into his late 90s, Wortell continued working with wood, making things in a woodshop behind his home that bore the sign “Marv’s Woodshed.”
“I guess I like making things,” Wortell told WGN-Ch. 9 in September 2015. “The trick is, don’t stop. Keep doing it.”
Longtime friend Seymour Gottlieb of Glencoe recalled spending much time with Wortell in outdoor activities, including bicycling and rafting.
“His enthusiasm for life and new experiences was very effervescent and exhilarating,” Gottlieb said. “Age is a number but does not describe the person at any stage in life, if you have the enthusiasm and the courage to persevere.”
In addition to his daughter, Wortell is survived by his wife, Esther; two other daughters, Susie Uppole and Janet; a son, Brent; and six grandchildren.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.