Tech Exec Makes (I mean, Does) Good

My old friend Daniel Cheifetz is written up in the Chicago Tribune today:

Donors look past cash to aid community fixes
Tech exec funds Evanston project

By Rob Kaiser
January 7, 2002

The bars recently came off the windows at the Dollar R Us store on the corner of Church Street and Dodge Avenue in Evanston. Soon the store’s sign will come down too.

A clothing store called Homefield Advantage is moving in and its owner hopes the surrounding neighborhood will also adopt a different look and feel.

“This corner is notorious for drugs and police stings,” said Marcellus Johnson, the store owner who grew up nearby. “We want to change that.”

That “we” includes people like Johnson, a 32-year-old promoter with connections to athletes and musicians; Lonnie Wilson, a 45-year-old social services veteran; and Daniel Cheifetz, a 54-year-old former technology executive who has poured more than $1 million into an effort to convert the corner of Church and Dodge from an eyesore into a center of community activity.

That corner is an unlikely location to find Cheifetz, a one-time struggling entrepreneur who became a multimillionaire after his software firm was sold and went public in 1996…

There’s no one like Daniel. Too bad. We could use more of him.

[Thanks to Tom Gross for pointing this article out to me.]

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