Jack Germain

Visitation for Jack Germain, 91, of North Barrington, will be from 3:00 PM until 8:00 PM, Wednesday, September 27, 2017 at the Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home, 415 S. Buesching Rd., Lake Zurich.  Funeral Services will be held, 11:00 AM, Thursday, September 28, 2017 also at the funeral home.  An Interment will follow at Evergreen Cemetery, Barrington.

Jack was born on August 6, 1926 in Lynn, MA to Morey and Esther (nee Baram) Germain and passed away on Saturday, September 23, 2017.

Jack is survived by his beloved wife, Barbara (nee Dixon).  Additional survivors include his daughters, Susan (Tom) Crawford; Karen (Cecilio) Guzman, Pamela (Richard) Gonzales; grandchildren, Kelsey & Kristyn Crawford, Cassandra & Ryne Guzman; and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother, Irving (Renee) Germain, and his sister, Ruth (David) Karmeli.

Jack proudly served in the U.S. Navy during WWII as an Electronic Technician from 1944 to 1946 stationed in the South Pacific.  After the war, Jack graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering; and completed graduate studies at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

In 1950 Jack joined Motorola, Inc. as a junior engineer in Chicago.  During his 38 years with Motorola, Jack’s career successes paralleled the growth of Motorola as he progressed from junior engineer to various senior management positions including Vice President, director of all product operations globally, and Assistant General Manager of Motorola’s Communications Sector.  In 1980, Jack was named Motorola’s first Senior Vice President of Quality and went on to oversee the company’s development of a revolutionary concept, the Six Sigma system.  Under Jack’s leadership, the company achieved major breakthroughs in such areas as engineering, manufacturing, finance and distribution.  Jack retired from Motorola in December of 1988, with a legacy that included numerous patents, revolutionizing the land mobile radio, launching paging products, manufacturing and commercializing the first cellular telephone, and winning the first-ever Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award established by the Reagan Administration in 1988 on behalf of Motorola.

After his retirement from Motorola, Jack was a Six Sigma Quality consultant to numerous Fortune 50 companies and Purdue University for more than 10 years.

Throughout his life and during a long retirement, Jack had an endless passion for playing golf (a member of Ravinia Green Country Club for 46 years), enjoyed extensive global travel with his wife, listening to classical music, and spending quality time with his family who he dearly loved.

Memorials may be made to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital, 262 Danny Thompson Place, Memphis, TN, 38105.