Loss of a Legend
Jerry Feldman (1926-2008); ex-Checker Cab president
By: Larry Finley, Sun-Times staff reporter
Checker Taxi president Jerry Feldman took direct action to combat the effects of the 1970s oil embargoes that slowed the flow of gasoline and ran up prices at the pump and on the meter.
“My father said he would never be at the mercy of the Middle East again,” said his son, Jeffrey. “We converted all of our cabs to propane. We installed propane supply stations in all of our garages. He was very much ahead of his time.”
As the head of the city's largest cab company, Mr. Feldman ran much of the fleet on the street during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Checker and its sister company Yellow Cab, run by Jeffrey, controlled about 80 percent of the city's 4,600 cab licenses until their lock was broken in the late 1980s.
Mr. Feldman, 82, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease on Dec. 7, in Phoenix, Ariz., where he had lived since retirement in the early 1990s.
Mr. Feldman got his start in the taxi business driving a cab in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he married Marilyn Markin, daughter of Morris Markin, the head of Checker Motors Co. and Checker and Yellow Cab companies. He learned the businesses in the company garages and the radio dispatch center.
“My father brought the Chicago taxi industry into the 21st century,” his son said. “The company in the 1960s was dispatching by a telephone and radio system. The improvements…culminated in the early 1980s when Checker and Yellow contracted with a computer dispatching company that provided terminals in all of our cabs. Instead of having voice dispatching we had computer dispatching. You no longer had the radio dispatcher yelling in the ear of the cabdriver who could be heard by the cab passenger.
Mr. Feldman was a spokesman for the industry both locally and nationally, his son said. During the 1970s gas crisis he lobbied the power brokers in Washington for a share of scarce gasoline supplies.
“Jerry was an ardent advocate of the industry and an expert spokesman,” said Alfred LaGasse, chief executive of the Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association, in Washington, D.C.
“He was president of our association in 1981,” he said. “Jerry was always confident and self-assured. He understood the business and could talk to anyone with confidence about taxis or anything else. There were some battles in Chicago over taxicab regulation at the time. I think time has borne him out that you need companies of significant size to serve the community effectively.”
In 1988, the city passed an ordinance to force Checker and Yellow to begin giving up some of their cab medallion permits, so that others could buy them from the city. Mr. Feldman retired in 1991, and he and his second wife, Marlene, moved to Phoenix.
“He took up tennis and became an avid player almost up until the time he passed away,” his son said. “He volunteered at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. He was a greeter there. He loved that. He got involved in art and the symphony. He collected wines. He just enjoyed himself after he got out of this crazy business.”
In addition to his wife and son Jeffrey, Mr. Feldman's survivors include sons Barney and Gary; two daughters, Gail Kenton and Jill Sebring; six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Services have been held.
Reprinted with permission from the Chicago Sun-Times.
