Jack K. Greenberg
March 6, 2025

Jack K. Greenberg, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, passed away March 6, 2025, three weeks shy of his 95th birthday.  Mr. Greenberg was born and raised in Pittsburgh.  He was the valedictorian of his of Taylor Allderdice High School graduating class in 1948, and he received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.  Mr. Greenberg served on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business during five decades, beginning in 1958.  His classes and areas of expertise included Personnel Administration, Employee Selection, and Employee Relations.  After working for American Institutes for Research, he founded and ran Measurement Services Incorporated, a firm focused on human behavior measurement and evaluation, occupational testing, hiring processes, labor relations, and training development.

When he was a very young boy, he became interested in magic.  His mother, Anne Greenberg, was in charge of starting a school for the arts at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Squirrel Hill when she hired a pair of brothers to start the synagogue's dancing school.  One of the brothers, Fred Kelly, had taught the other, older brother, Gene, to dance.  (Yes, that Gene Kelly.)  The two were excellent dancers and teachers, but Fred was also a working magician who performed throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.  Young Jack Greenberg was already interested in magic when, after a dancing class, Fred showed him some magic... and the little boy went from interested to obsessed.  Fred and Gene Kelly remained close friends with the Greenberg family through the rest of their lives.

By the time he was fourteen, he was a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (I.B.M.), the world's largest organization of magicians.  Local chapters of the I.B.M. are called "Rings," and Pittsburgh's Ring was known as "Tampa Ring 13," after a world-renowned Pittsburgh magician whose stage-name was Tampa.  Jack quickly became one of the most active and integral members of the Ring, and he ran the Junior events when the annual convention was held in Pittsburgh in 1947.

During college at the University of Pittsburgh, Jack played trumpet in the marching band, and stayed on the band's staff during graduate school as the "Drill Master," the person who created and taught the marching formations for the halftime shows.  He worked in the same capacity with the Mount Lebanon High School Band, taking them to twice to the Tournament of Roses Parade.  His love of march music kept him active in the Pitt Alumni Band into his later years.

But Jack's involvement in magic never stopped.  As a young man, he performed as a recurring character, a "Magical Milkman," with Fred Rogers and Josie Carey on WQED's The Children's Corner.  He remained in contact with Mr. Rogers, who called him occasionally with questions about magic and magicians.

Jack was a member of the I.B.M. for eighty magical years, and was elected to be the I.B.M. International President from 2000 to 2001.  At the I.B.M. Annual Convention in 2023, the Ring 13 membership announced the renaming of the Ring to Tampa-Greenberg Ring 13, in his honor.

Jack's beloved wife of 61 years, Carole, passed away in 2021.  He is survived by his son Don (Sharon), his daughter Diana, and his granddaughter Anna.  He will be missed by family, friends, and magicians around the globe.

Services at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Avenue, Shadyside on Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 1 PM. Visitation 12 Noon - 1 PM. Interment Temple Sinai Memorial Park. www.schugar.com

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