Man Sets Aside $1.5M to have Birthday Parties – After he’s Dead

Symmes Township, IL — Jack Greenberg, of Symmes Township, throws himself one heck of a birthday party every year: lunch and limousine service for 37 friends and their guests, a nice speech about himself, group photographs, and gifts of $1,500 for each invitee.

But the party, which takes place today, has one quirk – Greenburg is dead.

Greenberg died Feb. 9, 2008 at age 82. During his life, he’d amassed roughly $10 million through various businesses and investments.

In addition to bequeathing millions to Jewish charities, he established a unique trust – the most unique trust his lawyers have ever seen – to pay for a special birthday annually for 20 years or until the $1.5 million in the trust runs out.

Today marks the second party. Greenberg would have been 84.

“I’ve never seen anything like this (trust). I was amazed,” said Irwin Katzman, Greenberg’s longtime friend and an attorney for 60 years. Katzman helped Greenberg create the trust and is trustee of the estate.

“He gave it a substantial amount of thought,” Katzman said.

Steven Wilhelm, who handles trusts and wealth management for U.S. Bank agreed.

“I’ve seen some pretty unique trust provisions,” he said. “This caps them all.”

Wilhelm is a secondary trustee of Greenberg’s estate and agreed to speak about the typically confidential trust because Katzman, as trustee, gave the OK. They declined to release contact information for the guests.

Greenberg knew exactly how he wanted his money to be spent, Katzman said. And he was meticulous in his instructions for the Jack M. Greenberg Party Trust.

So today, several stretch limousines will pick up the invitees and their guests at the Marriott RiverCenter in Covington. They’ll caravan to the Love Brothers Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Price Hill, where the guests will gather at Greenberg’s grave and place a stone on his tombstone.

Then Katzman will read a letter from Greenberg. Guests will pose for a group photograph at 12:30 p.m. on the dot, then depart via the limousine at 12:35 p.m.

The times are stressed in the paperwork, because “time is of the essence,” Greenberg states.

Then the group will go back to the hotel to eat lunch and reminisce about the guest of honor.

Ironically, Greenberg never made much fuss about his birthday when he was alive, Katzman said.

Greenberg thought the memorial birthday parties would be a good way for his friends to get to know each other after he died, said Wilhelm.

“He figured that he enjoyed each of them, so they’d probably enjoy each other as well,” said Wilhelm. “He wanted to perpetuate the friendship over time.”

In addition to the birthday party, Greenberg also donated:

• 20 fully-equipped ambulances – one a year for 20 years – to the American Red Magan David for Israel (ARMDI), Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross. The ambulances are manufactured in Indiana at a cost of $75,000 each. Last year Katzman arranged for the donated ambulance to park at the cemetery during the birthday cemetery visit. This year they will view a photograph of the vehicle.

• $75,000 a year for three years to the Jewish National fund, based in New York, to plant trees in Israel. The forest is to be named after Greenberg.

• $1 million to the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati for new construction at the Jewish Community Center. A plaque in the fitness center bears Greenberg’s name.

Katzman suggested the charitable donations. “I kept asking him, do you have any zippers in your skin? Because you can’t take it with you when you go.”

He described his friend as “considerate,” “very personable,” and “creative.”

Greenberg could also be stubborn and difficult to deal with, Katzman said.

“We had our fights,” he admitted. He almost quit once because Greenberg kept changing his mind about who he wanted on the birthday invitation list. Ultimately Katzman had Greenberg put the names in a safe deposit box at U. S. Bank. Whenever Greenberg wanted to change the list, he could just go to the bank and do it himself.

Greenberg was a successful businessman, having operated several companies ranging from real estate, to construction, to aviation, to pizza. He had several close friends and a longtime girlfriend, Katzman said. A 2006 article in Cincy Jewish Living magazine described Greenberg as a“ mensch” – a Yiddish term to describe a good, admirable person.

A normally private man, Greenberg was tickled when the magazine printed the feature article on him, Katzman said.

That’s why Katzman decided to talk to the media about Greenberg’s trust. He thinks would get a kick out of the publicity.

He’d also be glad to see his friends celebrating his birthday today.

“If he’s looking down at the cemetery in Price Hill,” Katzman said, “he’d be pleased.”