Herman Blumenthal once headed Weisfield's jewelry stores

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When Herman Blumenthal married Maxine Weisfield Rosenberg in 1947, he bet her $50 that he would never work for Weisfield's, her father's retail jewelry chain.

She collected on that bet 30 years later, when he was elected the company's president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Blumenthal, a Kingston, Kitsap County, resident, prominent retired businessman, world traveler, philanthropist and member of a pioneer Seattle family, died Monday (Dec. 3), while vacationing in Hawaii. He was 81.

Before heading Weisfield's, Mr. Blumenthal owned Camp Lewis Tent & Awning, a Seattle manufacturer of canvas and industrial-fabric products. When he bought that company, he found a stash of old flags in a back room — a discovery that led to a lifelong passion, said his sister, Carolyn Danz of Seattle.

"He was into flags of all nations," she said. "He lived on the water in Kingston, and he had a huge flagpole. There were always four or five flags flying from it, some of them from countries you never heard of."

Mr. Blumenthal, one of five children of a pioneer Seattle men's clothier, grew up on Capitol Hill near Volunteer Park. He graduated from now-closed Broadway High School in 1938, studied at the University of Washington for a year and headed to New York with a friend to catch a boat to Europe and see the world.

World War II interrupted their plans. Mr. Blumenthal remained in New York for several years, then became a merchant marine and served in the Pacific. "He was bombed and everything else," Danz said, "but he came home."

After his marriage, Mr. Blumenthal sold belts and watches. He was an executive with Bulova Watch in New York for three years, specializing in marketing, sales promotion and advertising. He and his family returned to Seattle in the mid-1950s.

Mr. Blumenthal became president of Camp Lewis Tent & Awning in 1965 and took a seat on the board of Weisfield's in 1975. The family reasserted control over the publicly traded company in 1977, when Mr. Blumenthal was named president.

Mr. Blumenthal became Weisfield's chairman in 1987. In 1988, a national financial magazine lauded the company's "14-karat balance sheet."

Under Mr. Blumenthal's leadership, the chain grew to 87 jewelry stores in nine states, with sales of nearly $60 million a year, before it was sold in 1989 to a subsidiary of Ratners Group of London for $62 million.

After retirement, Danz said, her brother traveled. He also gave generously to charities but never sought attention: "Everything he did, he did very quietly."

He was a warm man with a good sense of humor, his sister said: "My phone has not stopped ringing with all the friends calling."

Mr. Blumenthal's wife died in 1989. A daughter, Lynn Blumenthal, died in 1993. Survivors, in addition to Danz, include Mr. Blumenthal's stepson, Leslie Rosenberg of Seattle; brother, Stanley Blumenthal of Seattle; sisters Marion Rosen of Seattle and Priscilla Drebin of Bellevue; companion, Karen Badgley of Bellevue; and two granddaughters.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today at Temple de Hirsch Sinai, 1511 E. Pike St., Seattle. Memorials may be made to the Jennifer Rosen Meade Preschool at Temple de Hirsch Sinai or to a favorite charity.

Eric Pryne can be reached at 206- 464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com.