Businessman, municipal official, sports official, philanthropist.
Born in Poland in 1902, his family emigrated to Canada in 1907 and settled at Winkler in 1907, moving to Winnipeg in 1911. His mother died when he was 7 and his formal education ended at Grade 5 when he took his first job as a dishwasher for a railway crew. At 11 he left home to work in a lumber camp and, by 16, bought a pharmacy at Lac du Bonnet. He eventually made a fortune in investments, oil exploration and development companies, as well as owning Danzker Dress Limited, a women’s wear shop in Winnipeg run by his brother Bill and sister-in-law Tessie.
On 11 October 1931, he married Dorothy Miriam Sternberg (?-1988, daughter of John N. Sternberg) at Winnipeg. They had no children. He was active in amateur sports, including baseball, soccer, hockey, golf and tennis. He served as President of the Glendale Golf and Country Club (1951). In 1954 he brought the minor league team Winnipeg Goldeyes to the city. He played a major role in attracting the 1967 Pan-American Games to Winnipeg. He served as a Winnipeg City Alderman from 1960 to 1968, and ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for the Manitoba Legislature in 1969.
In recognition of his community service, he was given a Manitoba Good Citizenship Award (1974) and he was inducted into the Manitoba Order of the Buffalo Hunt (1957) and the Order of Canada (1978). He received a City of Winnipeg Community Service Award (1966).
He died at Winnipeg on 17 February 1995 and was buried in the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery. His estate, estimated to be worth some three million dollars, was donated to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba. The Archives of Manitoba has the files from his political career as well as his work in the Jewish community (1948-1972), and his collection of newspaper clippings (1948-1978).
Marriage registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [Doroth Miriam Danzker], Winnipeg Free Press, 28 April 1988, page 43.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 21 February 1995, page 18.
Glendale Golf and Country Club Anniversary Yearbook 1946-1996, compiled by Leonard Remis, Winnipeg, 1996.
“Former city councillor ‘little dynamite’ Danzker leaves $3 million: Huge gift buoys foundation,” Winnipeg Free Press, 1 October 1996. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Vertical File]
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Jane Fudge.
Page revised: 9 August 2024
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