J. Jordan Nerenberg, formerly of Royal Continental Box (now The Royal Group), died peacefully at home in Tucson, Arizona. He was 91 years old.
Born in Chicago in 1934 to Sam and Helen Nerenberg, Jordan grew up alongside his brother Jerry in a household shaped by contradiction, devotion, and humor.
In 1956, Jordan graduated with honors and a degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University, an institution that remained deeply meaningful to him throughout his life. He served in the military reserves, and attended Columbia Business School earning his MBA, a year he remembered with enormous affection.
Royal Continental Box Company was founded in 1922 by Jordan’s father Sam and aunt Molly, who peddled wooden boxes and pallets from a horse-drawn cart on the streets of Chicago. By the time Jordan joined the business in the late 1950s, manufacturing was modernizing and younger generations were taking over family companies.
A gifted salesma, he transformed Royal into a regional powerhouse with six facilities in four states. Jordan understood instinctively that business was built on relationships. With one customer he might discuss parish life and family traditions; with another he traded jokes and stories over drinks. He believed deeply that time spent caring about people was never wasted.
Jordan led Royal into the future. He embraced emerging manufacturing technologies, and making careful investments. Royal purchased cutting-edge machinery, including Illinois’ first automatic corrugator. He was revered as an industry leader, serving as Chairman of the Independent Executive Corrugator Committee of the FBA.
Concerned that employees were spending too much time at a nearby tavern, he bought the bar himself, transforming it into JJ’s Tap, part customer entertainment space, part gathering place for Royal employees, and loved spending Friday evenings there with workers and customers alike. Jordan appointed Bob McIlvaine as Royal CEO in 1990, paving the way for another leader to take over the company he built.
When it came time to sell Royal in 2007, Jordan waited patiently until he found another family-owned company committed to preserving what Royal had built. Protecting the people who had built their lives alongside him remained among his proudest accomplishments.
Above all else, Jordan Nerenberg was a mensch: a man who showed up for people fully and treated others with dignity. He is survived by his beloved wife Jean, loving daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, and countless others whose lives were brighter because of Jordan.
