Max Heller
| Max Heller | |
|---|---|
| 29th Mayor of Greenville, South Carolina | |
|
In office July 13, 1971 – January 30, 1979 |
|
| Preceded by | R. Cooper White, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | James H. Simkins |
| Member of the Greenville City Council from District 4 | |
|
In office 1969–1971 |
|
| Preceded by | R. Cooper White, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | James H. Simkins |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Max Moses Heller May 28, 1919 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | June 13, 2011 (aged 92) Greenville, South Carolina, USA |
| Resting place | Beth Israel Cemetery in Greenville |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Trude Schonthal Heller (married 1942-2011, his death) |
| Children |
Francie Heller |
| Parents | Israel and Leah Hirschl Heller |
| Residence | Greenville, South Carolina |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Religion | Judaism |
Francie Heller
Susan Heller Moses
Steven Heller
Max Moses Heller (May 28, 1919 – June 13, 2011) was a businessman who served from July 13, 1971 to January 30, 1979 as the 29th mayor of Greenville, South Carolina. He was also a member of the Greenville City Council from 1969 to 1971 and later chairman of the South Carolina State Development Board.
The Max Heller Convention Center in Greenville is named in his honor.
The Jewish Heller was a native of Vienna, Austria. In 1938, as Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Heller, at nineteen, sought to emigrate to the United States. With the help of Mary Mills, a young Christian woman from Greenville whom he met while she was on a European tour, Heller obtained a sponsor so that he could leave Austria and as it developed avoid the Holocaust. At Miss Mills' request, Shepherd Saltzman, a Jewish man in Greenville who owned the Piedmont Shirt Company, agreed to offer employment to young Heller. He soon brought his parents, Israel Heller (1888-1975) and the former Leah Hirschl (1895-1965), and other family members to Greenville.
In 1942, Heller married the former Trude Schonthal, whom he had known as a child in Vienna. She had emigrated in 1941 to New York City, and the two were reunited after having been apart for several years. The couple was married on Main Street in Greenville and was together for sixty-nine years until his death in 2011. In time, Heller became the manager of the Piedmont Shirt Company, but in 1948, he launched his own firm, Maxon Shirt Company. He began with 16 employees but had 700 when he sold the company in 1962 and officially retired six years later at the age of forty-nine with plans to devote the next phase of his life to public service.
After two years on the city council, Heller was elected mayor of Greenville, in which capacity he sought to increase the availability of affordable housing. During his eight years in the position, his focus also centered upon downtown revitalization, a need adopted as well by several of his mayoral successors, particularly Bill Workman and current mayor Knox H. White. Heller worked to revive Main Street, which was converted from a four-lane thoroughfare into a two-lane street with wide sidewalks configured in the style of a "European village" with street lights, green spaces, and flower planters.
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Wikipedia