Although Dick Aronson was highly regarded in the commercial real estate field, his friends also knew him as the leader of the band.
Mark Aronson said his father, a former president of the Concordia Club, would often lead Benny Benack's band when Benack entertained at the prestigious Oakland social club. "Benny gave Dad a gold baton to use when he took over as band leader."
Richard J. Aronson, of Oakland, former president of U.S. Realty Corp., died on Friday, Jan. 2, 2004, at ManorCare, Monroeville. Mr. Aronson, 87, had been injured in a fall on Thanksgiving Day.
Selling real estate or entertaining friends came easy for Mr. Aronson, who knew all aspects of the real estate business and was a man who had a legion of friends.
In 1937, Mr. Aronson joined U.S. Realty, a commercial real estate firm founded in 1902 by his father, I. Leonard Aronson, and his three uncles. I. Leonard Aronson was also a banker and an attorney and a member of Rodef Shalom Congregation in Oakland.
The first offices were in the Aronson Building, located at the time at the corner of Fifth Avenue and what was then known as Tunnel Street. "We believe it was the first building in the Downtown to have an electric elevator," Mr. Aronson's son said.
Mr. Aronson was born and raised in Squirrel Hill. He attended Taylor Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill and Culver Military Academy in Indiana.
At Culver, Mr. Aronson was a member of the elite Black Horse Troop, an honor extended to those who were considered excellent horsemen. He was also a boxer and fought as a flyweight, his son said.
In 1933, following graduation from Culver, Mr. Aronson enrolled in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and received a bachelor's degree in economics.
Upon graduation, he married Jean DeRoy, a resident of New York City, whom he met when she was visiting Pittsburgh.
Although the couple had eloped and were married in Elken, Md., in 1935, a formal ceremony took place in 1937 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. "My parents often said it was love at first sight," Mark Aronson said. Mrs. Aronson died in 1993.
Mark Aronson, an attorney, said his parents had many commitments, yet found time to be with their sons and to become involved with groups that espoused helping special needs children, including the Allegheny Valley School in Oakmont.
"My brothers and I attended services at Rodef Shalom with our parents, much as my father did when he was growing up," he said.
During World War II, Mr. Aronson continued his involvement with the firm during the day and in the evenings handled a lathe at the Kerotest Corp. in the Strip District, which was involved with defense work for the military. He also served as an air raid warden in Squirrel Hill.
Prior to merging U.S. Realty into Hill-Cleary Real Estate Co., where he was vice president, Mr. Aronson and his partner, S. Stephen Berger, who was also his brother-in-law, managed what was considered prestige real estate in Allegheny County, including the former Nixon Theater building on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.
Mr. Aronson is survived by his sons, Mark B. Aronson, of Churchill; Steven D. Aronson and his wife, Judith, of Penn Hills; and I. Leonard "Lenny" Aronson II and his wife, Linda, of Little Rock, Ark.; a sister, Leona A. "Nonnie" Berger, of Oakland; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Friends may meet at Ralph Schugar Chapel Inc., 5509 Centre Ave., Shadyside, at 1 p.m. Sunday and then proceed to West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation for graveside services.
