Dick Price - Biography

Biography

Dick Price was born October 12, 1930, to Herman and Audrey Price in Chicago, Illinois. He died while hiking near Esalen on November 25, 1985, and was survived by his wife, Christine Stewart Price, and two children, David Price and Jennifer Price.

Price had a sister, Joan, born in 1929, and a twin brother, Bobby, who died in 1933. Bobby's death was traumatic for the family, and especially for Dick.

Price's father, Herman Price (anglicised from Preuss) was born into an Eastern European Jewish family in 1895. He emigrated from Lithuania in 1911 (at that time a part of Russia), first to New York and finally to Chicago. During World War I he served in the United States Coast Guard, and then in the United States Navy. Herman was a refrigeration expert. He headed appliance manufacturing and design at Sears for Coldspot, working extensively with Raymond Loewy, who was a close family friend. With the onset of World War II, Herman was loaned by Sears to the Douglas Aircraft Company where he applied his assembly line experience to organizing the mass production of aircraft, including the B-17 in particular. Although Herman was a charismatic businessman, he was an emotionally withdrawn and distant father for Dick.

Price's mother, Audrey (Meyers) Price was born in Indiana in 1895, and grew up in Auburn, Illinois. She was of Dutch, Irish and English heritage. Audrey was a domineering figure in the family, and a problematic and intrusive mother for Dick.

When Price was born, his family lived in Rogers Park. In 1936, the family moved into the two-floor penthouse apartment in a building at 707 W. Junior Terrace, just off Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.