David & Rhoda Chase

Inaugural Issue

Palm Beach Today Magazine

April 25, 2008

Cover Story

David & Rhoda Chase

Philanthropists Extraordinaire

By Ronald Tee Johnson,

Palm Beach Today Editor-in-Chief

In 1939, Germany occupied Poland and David Chase and his family were moved from their home in Sosnowiec to a ghetto. At age 12 Chase was on a march, a death march.

Eventually, the family was taken to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where 60 members of his family perished including his mother and a younger sister.

During a death march from Mauthausen concentration camp, he escaped, and on May 5, 1945 was liberated by General Patton’s Third Army.

Arriving in America in June,1946, Chase settled in Hartford, Connecticut and whisked through Weaver High School in two years and began another march, a march toward extraordinary business success and the opportunity to give millions to good causes throughout the world in addition to working with world leaders to achieve peace.

His profound belief in God has guided him all the way and indicitive of Chase’s fierce loyalty to those that helped him succeed is the day he received his first pay check. He was waxing cars at a used car lot and the day he got the check, the boss man told him to go across the street and open an account at South End Bank.

“The people at the bank were very warm and friendly toward me. Even the president of the bank thanked me for opening an account and I was just a boy shining cars across the road,” Chase fondly recalls.

Ten years later, Chase was the largest single stockholder in the bank and chairman of the board, but that lofty financial position was not obtained easily. Chase had to take to the streets of Hartford to learn some valuable life lessons and understand how to channel his powerful determination to succeed.

Coming up with the idea that Harford homeowners needed basic housewares, Chase began going door-to-door, but no Willy Lomen was he.

“At first I sold detergent, flatware and pots and pans and I found that I really liked people and people liked me. I took an interest in them and their needs,” Chase said.

It was at this point, making a decent living as an entreprenuer, Chase began to think big, a trait that has continually carried him to success. But,thinking big requires confidence

Afterall, any person who has the confidence and the will to knock on a door and sell a pot isn’t timid about anything. Chase had no fear of failure, no sense of defeat. Even the most nasty of unhappy housewifes bought from David Chase.

“I began selling big home items like furniture, drapes, carpeting, television and radios sets and before I knew it I was making big money. I remember many $1,000 commission checks,” Chase explained.

From there, Chase took off running and thinking and creating and began building Chase Enterprises, a company that would scale the highest buildings and move at first into the development of shopping centers and then on into ownership of banks, insurance companies, radio and television stations, engineering companies, cellular phones, cable companies and auto part manufacturers.

In the early 90s Chase returned to Poland and brought the American free enterprise system and his patented dedication and keen sense of loyalty with him.

Through a subsidiary, Warsaw-based Chase International, Chase invested $20 million in Poland and employed more than 100 people. Most of the money went into a joint venture with Poland’s telephone company to build a fiber-optic cable TV system to serve Poland’s 10 million households.

Chase, now thinking big for his home country, brought in MTV and CNN and a fiber-optic telephone system. He opened a bank - Solidarity-Chase Bank - and even brought in a Wendy’s chain.

In a Forbes article (May, 27, 1991) the writer, Katarzyna Wandycz, asked Chase why he was opening up business in Poland. “The Polish people don’t look at me as if I came to exploit the country,” Chase said in the article. “Of course, they know my background; my family had been living in Poland for 500 years. And because I speak the language there is a feeling of trust .... a Polish telephone company is our partner, every city is our partner, and Solidarity is our partner. We are part of Poland.”

Chase said that he had always wanted to go back to Poland. “Deep down part of me will always be in Poland, and never left Poland.”

Always willing to share his knowledge of the American free enterprise system with those that want to know and understand it, Chase brought about The David T. Chase Free Enterprise Institute at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The Institute is dedicated to supporting the advancement of the free enterprise system. Chase said that the principle underlying the Institute’s mission is that capitalism can provide profitable business growth in a positive social environment.

“In American business and industry, there are many opportunities for small businesses to grow, create jobs, and reward their owner-operator,” Chase said. “The Institute promotes this

concept by offering educational programs and activities about the free market enterprise.

The David T. Chase Institute Award is given annually to a business professional who is distinguished in the social, economic or political arena. Chase Medal winners have demonstrated professional success and contributed to the betterment of their community, state or nation. Victor Kiam, chairman of Remington Industries, was the first Chase Medal award winner in 1990.

In 2004, Virginia governor Mark Warner told an audience of free enterprise students and business people at the university that it was a $1 million in venture capital from Chase that helped him co-found Nextel, the cellular phone company.

“All I have today is because of the American free enterprise system and I cherish it,” Chase said.

Since 1952 when he established Chase Enterprises and had two children - Arnold Chase and Cheryl Chase (and six grandchildren) - Chase has been thinking big and making millions as a result. His success has led to many honors: Doctor of Law from the Rabbinical College of America (his co-recipient being the late Gerald R. Ford); Doctor of Law from the University of the District of Columbia (co-recipient being Mrs. Coretta Scott King and Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez) and a Doctor of Commercial Science degree from the University of Hartford.

David and Rhoda are co-recipients of Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University where the David T. Chase Free Enterprise Institute was established.

He has served as chairman of the board of the Rabbinical College of America and Machne Israel Development Fund, Trustee of the Foundation for the Advancement of Catholic Schools, and he is a founder of the United States Holocaust Museum.

He is the recipient of the State of Israel Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal from Poland. Rhoda is former vice president and treasurer of Chase Department Stores and president of the Parkview Hilton Hotel in Hartford.

She has served as a Regent of the University of Hartford and is a recipient of the B’Nai Brith Woman of the Year Award. She served five years as a Commission of the Arts for the State of Connecticut and is Vice Chairman of the YMCA.

Indeed David Chase escaped from a death march and sold pots and pans door-to-door and thought big. As a result, through his determination and hard work, countless charitable causes have been helped, but that doesn’t mean he is hanging it up.

Just last week he announced his development of a new marina in the downtown area of West Palm Beach that will transform the waterfront. There he goes again ... thinking big. Lucky for us. •

See the photos

of the wedding of the

Chase's granddaughter,

Dara Chase Freedman,

to Ross Timothy Dyer

David & Rhoda Chase are major sponsors of the American Red Cross Humanitarian Prize