Stanley M. Lukoff, A Businessman Who Never Stopped Learning

Stanley M. Lukoff wanted to know everything.

He read continually, perhaps five newspapers and periodicals every day. His thirst for knowledge knew no bounds.

Mr. Lukoff was interested in everything. "He could talk to anybody about anything," recalled his wife, Nadine. "Astrology, physics, atoms. He just knew everything; he was so smart."

Every day Mr. Lukoff read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, trade journals, The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Mrs. Lukoff said.

"He was very unique. He just absorbed information and knowledge," she added.

Mr. Lukoff, 57, who was in the real-estate business in Seattle and on the Eastside for many years, died Saturday of a heart attack, family members said.

Aaron Lukoff, Mr. Lukoff's son, remembers his father as someone who set an example for honesty and sympathy for those less fortunate.

"When people talk about me, they describe someone who is moral and upright with the capacity to tell right from wrong. That's because of my mother and father; they were both excellent examples for me," Aaron Lukoff said.

His father was always understanding with people who could not pay their rent or mortgages, Aaron Lukoff said. "In my father's business, it would have been simple sometimes to evict people and take the property . . . and my father was always lenient and merciful with people like that. He'd say, `We'll pick it up next month,' " he added.

"If I see an injustice, I want to do something about it, and that came from my father," Aaron Lukoff said.

Phyllis Dolgoff, Mr. Lukoff's sister, said her brother's thirst for learning probably was due to his upbringing in his grandmother's home, where he was surrounded by adult aunts and uncles.

"He was always among adults, and he became a little adult at a very early stage," Dolgoff said.

"I can remember stories about him remembering all the slogans about Camel cigarettes and Lucky Strikes," Dolgoff said. He learned to read well before he started school, and he just "zipped through school," she said.

Herb Pruzan, a friend who knew Mr, Lokoff for 40 years and was his business partner in Roy-Mar Inc. and Eastshore Inc. for 30 years, said he was a man of tremendous integrity.

"His word was his bond, and he was a very fine person to do business with," Pruzan said. He called Mr. Lukoff a "student of many different things, who kept learning all his life. He was interested in everything and because of that, he was a very interesting person."

David Mintz, who knew Mr. Lukoff since childhood, when they attended Hebrew school together in Seattle's Central Area, remembers him as a "very nice person, fun to be around, and he always told good jokes."

James McBride, another longtime friend, said Mr. Lukoff was a strong personality who always was willing to help his friends. "He was a person who, if I would run into a problem, he was there in a minute."

Mr. Lukoff was an avid card player who was good at it. He loved poker, bridge and "pan" or panguingue, a rummy-type game. And he took it seriously.

"He did not play to lose. He was just a very good card player," McBride said.

Mr. Lukoff was born in Seattle and grew up in the Central Area, on Capitol Hill and later in the Madrona neighborhood. He graduated from Garfield High School and later attended the University of Washington for about one year before leaving to work. He later formed his own real-estate companies.

Besides his wife, son and sister, Mr. Lukoff is survived by his daughter, Paula Lukoff of Seattle, and a brother, Mark Brenner of Seattle.

Remembrances are suggested to the Juvenile Diabetic Foundation or the American Heart Association.