Ozzie Malek was known for his jokes, good poker-playing and love of a good steak.
He was less known for his private charitable work, such as weekly mentoring sessions with kids at Manual High School, which he did for years.
Malek was 71 when he died March 31.
Malek “was just so good with kids, and I think it was because he himself came up with nothing and related to them,” said his son, Charles Malek of Denver.
Father and son volunteered at Colorado Youth at Risk, a program that puts adults with kids who otherwise have little contact with “caring adults,” said Charles Malek.
Years ago, Ozzie Malek befriended a developmentally disabled boy and, until recently, took the boy, who is now a man, and his mother out for dinner every couple of weeks, Charles Malek said.
He also volunteered at the Jewish Community Center.
Ozzie Malek “was a very straightforward person,” said a longtime friend, Dr. Gene Du Boff, a psychiatrist. “And he had the ability most men don’t have: to speak of his feelings. He wasn’t frightened of them.”
He wasn’t afraid to tell friends what he thought. He told Du Boff that he didn’t look good in a beard. But Du Boff kept it until he went to Malek’s funeral.
“He wasn’t abusive or angry or controlling,” said Du Boff. “He just made observations.”
Always loyal to friends, Malek played every week with the same poker group for more than 45 years, said his daughter, Julie Malek of Denver.
Only Ozzie Malek and one other person in the group, Barry Tenenbaum, spoke fluent Yiddish, “so we could say anything to each other,” said Tenenbaum. “It drove the other guys crazy.”
Full of jokes, Malek could tell them with any accent and used his computer mainly to e-mail jokes, said his daughter.
Ozzie Malek was a child when he; his sister, Jeannie; and parents, Charles and Helen, fled Belgium when the Nazis invaded.
They wound their way through several countries for three years before reaching the U.S. in 1943, said his daughter.
Oscar Malek was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on April 19, 1937. He earned a degree at the Michigan State University.
Through a mutual friend, he met Helene Boxer, and they married Dec. 24, 1961. She died 14 months ago.
He worked in his grandfather’s diamond business in New York City, was part owner of a liquor store in Montbello, was a liquor distributor and was a part owner of Applejack Liquor.
More recently, he was in commercial and residential real estate.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by five grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
