Isidore and Selma Wise

Isidore Wise (1866-1956) left school at the age of 11 for his first job in retail and opened his own dry goods store by the age of 21. Eventually Wise and partners built a six-story department store, Wise, Smith & Co., that he operated from 1898 to 1950. In 1907, he founded the Hartford Businessmen's Association, which eventually became the Hartford Chamber of Commerce.

Wise, however, was equally known and respected as a civic leader. He held several public offices, including city councilman, alderman, and Police Commissioner. He served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Connecticut State Prison Board for 29 years and the Board of the Newington Home for Crippled Children for at least 40 years. Wise received many public honors for his generosity and volunteer work, including an honorary degree from Trinity College, the naming of a wing for him at the Newington Home for Crippled Children, the Jewish War Veterans Interfaith Relations Award, and a major tribute from the Hartford Courant. He was a devout and active member of Congregation Beth Israel, serving as president for 37 years.

Wise and his wife Selma were extremely fond of travel; in 1949 they established the Isidore and Selma Wise Travel Foundation to provide travel scholarships for two Hartford public school students each year.

Dean of Hartford merchants. Born in Hartford Nov. 19, 1866, son of Leopold and Rosalie Wise. His grandfather, David Engel, was one of the first uniformed policemen in Hartford. At the age of 11, Isidore Wise left the old Second North School to take a job at the salary of $2.00 a week as a cash boy for Stern & Mandelbaum Dry Goods Store at Main and Temple sts. At the age of 21, with Solomon Youngman and Godfrey Olschefski, Jr., he opened a store at Main and Kinsley sts. Later they bought the Clark Co. in the old Cheney building. This second venture prospered and two new partners, Solomon Wohl and Robert S. Smith, were added to the firm. In 1897 they built the six story department store on the site of the old Melodeon Hall where the Fourth Congregational Church had stood. This firm became one of the city's largest department stores and Isidore Wise became Hartford's largest taxpayer. In addition to his executive duties with the firm which became Wise, Smith & Co., Isidore Wise was an official of the Morris Plan Bank for many years, a director of the Hartford Electric Light Co., Mechanics Savings Bank, and the Hartford Connecticut Trust Co. In 1907, he was a founder and president of the Hartford Business Men's Assn., forerunner of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce of which he was president in 1922. He was a director of the Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Goods Assn., and one of the founders of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Assn. He was vice president and a director of the Newington Home and Hospital for Crippled Children for more than 40 years, and was one of its most generous contributors. For more than half a century, he was prominently identified with the civic and Jewish life of the community. He had been in politics since the age of 21, and in 1894 and 1896 served as a member of the Board of Aldermen. He was a police commissioner in 1902. In 1931 he was urged by 30 of the most prominent citizens of Hartford to accept the Republican nomination for Mayor if it were to be offered him, but he refused. In 1933 he was a member of the Hartford Park Board, and from 1943 to 1950, served as its president. Active in the city's Jewish community, Isidore Wise served as a trustee of Congregation Beth Israel in 1891, then as a treasurer and vice president, and in 1907, was named president, a position he held for 37 years. During that period he never missed a Sabbath service. In 1932 he was appointed to the board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. He was a founder of the United Jewish Charities in 1912, its president from 1912 to 1917, and honorary president for many years. In 1942 he was the first recipient of the Citizen's Award presented by the Jewish War Veterans. He received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Trinity College and, in 1953, a Pierpont Edward Medal for distinguished Masonic service, having been a 55 year member of the Masonic Lafayette Lodge. His hobby was travel, and in 1949 he established the Isidore and Selma Wise Travel Foundation so that each year two public school pupils would be able to broaden their education by travel. With their teachers, one pupil was to travel in the U.S., and the other, abroad. Died Jan. 25, 1956 at the age of 90. Survivors: widow, Rose Stern Wise; daughters, Mrs. Louis A. Samuels and Mrs. Edward A. Hart. His first wife, Selma Stern Wise, who was the first president of the Hartford League of Women Voters, died July 5, 1931.

From the Hartford Courant editorial, Jan. 26, 1956: . . . Isidore Wise was a leader in religious affairs, in civic matters, in fraternal organizations, in business. He led a career so full that it is difficult to realize today how much he meant to the community .... He was a graduate of the Horatio Alger school of life, Trinity College said when it gave him an honorary degree .... On his 87th birthday in 1952, he uttered his belief that Hartford, where he had always lived, is as full of opportunities for youth as it ever was.