The Pritzker family is an American family engaged in entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and one of the wealthiest families in the United States (staying in the top 10 of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began such listings in 1982). Its fortune arose in the 20th century, particularly through the founding and expansion of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

Family members still largely own Hyatt and, prior to its sale to Berkshire Hathaway, the Marmon Group, a conglomerate of manufacturing and industrial service companies.^[1] Their holdings also have included the Superior Bank of Chicago (which collapsed in 2001), the TransUnion credit bureau, Braniff airlines, McCall's magazine, and the Royal Caribbean cruise line.^[2]

The Pritzker family is of Jewish descent^[3] and based in Chicago, Illinois.^[4] The founder of the American Pritzker family, Yakov (Jacob) Pritzker (1831–1896), was the manager of a sugar factory in Kyiv Governorate, on the territory of modern Ukraine. At first he lived with his family in the village of Velyki Pritzky, then in Kyiv. At the end of the 19th century, escaping from Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, he emigrated to the USA with his family.^[5][6]

Family fortune

In 1995, Jay Pritzker, the cofounder of Hyatt, stepped down and Thomas Pritzker took control of The Pritzker Organization.^[4] When the former died in 1999, the family split the business into 11 pieces worth $1.4 billion each^[4] (and chose to settle a lawsuit from two family members, who apparently received $500 million each, in 2005).^[7][8][9] By 2011, the dissolution had been completed, and the cousins had gone their separate ways, with some pursuing business, and others philanthropic or artistic ventures.^[10] According to Inside Philanthropy, there are many Pritzkers, with many different vehicles or foundations for their philanthropic giving.^[11]

Genealogy

Family members fortune

Members of the Pritzker family on the Forbes World's Billionaires list of "the richest people in the world" in 2024:^[16]

Legacy

• A.N. Pritzker Elementary School
• Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Chicago's Millennium Park
• Pritzker Architecture Prize
• Pritzker Family Children's Zoo at the Lincoln Park Zoo
• Pritzker College Prep, a Campus of the Noble Network of Charter High Schools
• Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology
• Pritzker School of Law at Northwestern University
  • Pritzker Legal Research Center at Northwestern
• Pritzker Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles
• Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago (UChicago)
• Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago
• Pritzker Marine Biological Research Center at New College of Florida
• Pritzker Galleries of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago
• Pritzker Traubert Family Library at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
• The Pritzker Organization
• Pritzker Edition of Zohar (the Book of Radiance), translation & commentary by Daniel Matt and, for last 3 volumes, Nathan Wolski and Joel Hecker; 12 vols, Stanford University Press, 1997-2017
• Pritzker Military Museum and Library-cited earlier in this article.
• Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies in the Field Museum of Natural History