Ralph Goldenberg Obituary

Goldenberg, Ralph I.

Ralph I. Goldenberg passed away on Monday, July 18 in Milan at the age of 87 from complications after suffering a fall.

A lifelong patron of the arts, a prominent Chicago art collector and avid supporter of many causes on behalf of civil liberties, equal opportunity and racial justice, he co-founded Goldenberg, Hehmeyer & Co., a clearing firm at the Chicago Board of Trade.

Other than his family, the guiding passion of his life was contemporary art, which he started collecting in the 1960s. Over the years, his collection held some of the giants of contemporary art, including Willem DeKooning, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and Jackson Pollock. He was actively involved with the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art. After he moved to London, he supported the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he served on the Committee for Drawings and Prints.

He joined the CBOT in 1961 and spent decades as a trader before co-founding GHCO. He was actively engaged in the governance of the exchange and served as vice-chairman in 1987. In 1988 and 1989, he was chairman at the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation. He was a member of the clearing corporation's board of governors from 1985 through 1990. He was an active member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange since it opened in 1973 and started the Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s operation there. He moved to London to spearhead global expansion for GHCO. In London, he managed GH Traders, a proprietary trading firm. He was inducted into the Futures Industry Hall of Fame in 2009.

He is survived by his wife, Anna Barbagallo, his children, Jane Goldenberg (Tom Schwarz), Judy Reinemann, Jackie Goldenberg (Jared Pearl), Amanda Ellison and grandchildren, Emma, Louis and Isaac Reinemann, Marisa and Harrison Schwarz and Saskia and Julian Pearl.

Donations in his honor can be made to the American Civil Liberties Union and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Published by Chicago Sun-Times on Jul. 26, 2022.

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