Ira Kalb

April 19th, 1948 - August 12th, 2020

Memorial

Mementos

Ira Sidney Kalb was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and died at age 72 at his home in Santa Monica. His father, Morris, died when Ira was a toddler, and he and his mother lived in Trenton until Ira was a young teen, when they moved to Santa Monica to be closer to family. His mother died just a few years later, and Ira, who was still in high school, moved in with the Rosenberg family-his sister Helen, brother-in-law Milton, and their three children. A rocky start didn't prevent Ira from becoming a highly accomplished individual. He graduated cum laude with a BS in Bio-Engineering Systems from UCLA in 1970, staying on to earn an MBA in 1972. After graduate school, Ira served as president of Compal Computer Systems and went on to found Kalb & Associates, K&A Press, and Out-of-this-World Marketing. As a marketing expert, Ira wrote several books, published numerous articles, appeared on various TV and radio news programs, and invented many original marketing and business concepts. In addition, Ira was an accomplished musician, playing the saxophone and other woodwind instruments semi-professionally as a young man. Ira was also a gifted teacher, teaching courses over the years in marketing, international management, business systems, and sales for universities, corporations, and organizations around the world. He took a special interest in Finland, where he first visited in 1995, teaching marketing and advertising courses at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business and conducting marketing seminars for business executives throughout the country. For his efforts, in 2016 he received the insignia of Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland, the highest honor given to a non-Finnish citizen. An achievement of which Ira seemed especially proud was becoming a professor of marketing at USC in 2006. In talking to Ira about his work at the university, it was obvious that he cared deeply about his students and his role in educating the next generation of marketing professionals. His students showed their appreciation by honoring him with the Golden Apple Teaching Award four times. Ira taught at USC until May of this year, when the inoperable cancer that had been diagnosed in 2017 forced him to resign. But Ira will be remembered for more than just his accomplishments. When he joined the Rosenberg household after the passing of his mother, Ira's status as uncle to Rita, Marla, and Jay morphed into that of older brother, and though he never had children of his own, he took pleasure in his role as great uncle-emphasis on the great-to Sam, David, Lily, Eric, Nathan, and Koby and great-great uncle to Millie, Mila, and Trudy. His loss will be felt by family, friends, colleagues, and students alike. Rest in peace, Uncle I.

Tributes

Share a favorite memory, send condolences, and honor Ira’s life with a heartfelt message.

Taleen Khatchadourian

Ira did not like the book choices for our marketing class, so he wrote his own. His practical advice made it easier to learn the practical aspects we needed to better understand the field we would be entering. He then pushed me to take an internship I may never have taken. I still recall the things I learned from that experience. So, when 10 years after graduating, the company I worked for was thinking about hiring Ira to speak at an event we were hosting, I jumped for joy. I was thrilled at the opportunity to listen to his wisdom again, and to share that opportunity with my colleagues. Every time I think of Ira, I smile. That will never change. Goodbye, my friend. Thank you.

Published October 14th, 2021

Sharon Mualem

I first met Ira in 1971 while we were at UCLA. Our mutual friends introduced us hoping we would be interested in each other but our different tastes in Barbra Streisand's music did not leave a good first impression. Since then, we remained good friends and that was probably one of the few topics we ever disagreed on. But I must say...Ira never missed an opportunity to remind me of this even though my tastes had changed over the years. After all, Ira was extremely honest, as well as fundamentally fair and very loyal. My family and I shared many good times and many meals and even some holidays together with Ira. My husband Sami took two of Ira's marketing classes at UCLA Extension and my son-in-law Ty was a guest speaker for one of his USC classes. Both raved about how Ira was engaging, interesting, relevant, and connected with his students. He maintained close friendships with many over the years. I would be remiss in not sharing how creative and talented Ira was as both a musician and an artist. He could play a "mean" sax and in the early days we would follow him to the local clubs to listen to his band. His inspirational paintings truly captured his unique perspective. We miss our dear friend and wish we had more time.

Published October 3rd, 2020

stella grey

I want to express my deepest condolences to Ira's family and to all friends who morn his passing and whom he cherished so much. Our family left the USSR and landed in Los Angeles in 1990. We were lucky to cross paths with Esther Krisman soon after our arrival, and Esther in turn introduced us to Ira. This is how my son Eugene found his Big Brother, and I found a good friend of 30 years. Ira, with his intellect and versatile interests, became a wonderful influence on my curious boy. I would usually deliver my son to Montana on Sunday morning, ready for adventures. Sometimes I would join two of them. I have fun memories of the three of us getting soaking wet when the sprinklers went off on the lawn of Pepperdine, of driving downtown to visit the Museum of Natural history, of being treated to lunches and dinners that were part of our introduction to American culture, and of watching Ira struggling to make sense of our broken English. He became part of our family, celebrating our birthdays, Eugene's milestones from his Bar Mitzvah and graduation from college, my wedding, and many other occasions during the last 30 years. It has not been a year when I would not hear "happy birthday, Stella Z!". When my mom was setting up a table for some family occasion she would always check if Ira was coming. Not everything in our relationship went smoothly. I witnessed for years how Eugene and Ira argued about the virtues of Macs versus PCs. Unfortunately no compromise has been reached in that area. Our last conversation, two weeks before his passing, was all about the future: revitalizing his marketing business, selling the condo, finding a new physician. In spite of knowing how uncertain his health was, the news of his passing was shocking.I will miss Ira, his kindness, his stubbornness, his resilience, his love for his family and devotion to his friends. Ira left a kind footprint...

Published September 13th, 2020

Michael Kamins

In the great synagogue in Rome is an oil painting of a rabbi, painted probably two hundred years ago. Ira's students went there and sent him an image of that painting, and at dinner at my house a few years ago, he showed me that image. The rabbi was Ira's Doppleganger!!! At the time, Ira commented that indeed it could have been him! His students certainly thought so. Great souls may have the ability to return to the earth and do good deeds yet again, if anyone qualifies, Ira certainly fits the bill! I met Ira at USC and was the individual who pushed the Marketing Department to hire him back in 2006. FOUR Golden Apples later, not to mention a ton of press briefings, it is clear that Ira was one of the BEST hires they ever made. Ira and I bonded over our mutual experience at USC and would often meet at a deli in Westwood for breakfast to rehash the same old war stories about the school. Somehow doing this made us both feel better. His last few months at USC were full of stress and frankly, I believe that this turbulent time distracted his mind and body from focusing on blocking the cancer that was enveloping him. No one could care MORE for his students and his subject than Ira...NO-ONE! He was a devoted professor whose legacy will be lasting, and one day in the distant future maybe someone will paint an oil of a man who made a difference who had a striking resemblance to Ira Kalb. Mike Kamins

Published July 23rd, 2021

Sami Linnainmaa

I must say it was a bit of a shock to find this memorial after wondering for some time why I hadn't heard back from Ira in a long while. Although I was well aware of his illnesses - including also at least one very close encounter with death already a while ago - and also that it is not like him at all to not reply promptly, and especially to not remember someone on their birthday (I just turned 50), it still came as a very sad suprise to find out about his passing. Just a few months ago in June he was still wondering if there might be an opportunity to teach again at Aalto University here in Finland since in his own words: "After 14 years, I am leaving USC so I should have a lot of time to do consulting and training for others as I did before. Aalto was my favorite place to teach." Even though it has been well over a decade since we last met face to face (unless you count video calls, which we had every now and then in addition to the regular email correspondance and frequent chat via LinkedIn), Ira was one of the closest friends I've ever had. He even travelled all the way to Finland to attend my wedding as a guest of honor. We met in 1993 when I attended a couple of his Marketing classes at UCLA Extesion. After completing my studies as an exchange student, Ira helped me get an internship at an LA based company he was consulting at the time. Having the opportunity to work very closely with him during this internship, we also became close friends and have kept in touch ever since. Ira visited Finland quite a few times and we were also welcome to stay at his place in Santa Monica when we visited LA a few years after our wedding with my wife. I have so many fond memories of our times together. Although Ira said on many occations that he didn't know how to have fun, he was actually a very funny and fun loving guy. My favourite joke, which made us laugh again and again, originated when Ira found out after one of his visits to Finland that we have a so called "name day", meaning every Finnish name has a certain date assigned for it and it is customary to congratulate people on their "name day" (but it is not really celebrated otherwise). Ira, however, assumed it was of bigger importance and comparable to ones birthday, so when he found out after his visit that I had my name day during his visit and didn't offer him any cake, he would always remind me that I owe him cake.:) In fact, the last time we joked about this was just now in June when he was wondering about the possibility to teach here again, and I promised to give him the cake I owed if he was selected as one of the teachers for a 2-week international program at Aalto University.;) My deepest condolances to everyone who has been touched by this loss. Ira will always have a very special place in my heart, as well as my memories, and I will really miss our rewarding talks. May he rest in peace.

Published September 20th, 2020

Betty Carmona

I was introduced to Ira through friends. I had returned from Israel and was living in West Los Angeles and my good friend Carol introduced us. First impressions mean a lot, and if he was a friend of Carol's, then I knew he was a good, decent and loyal person, who valued his friendships and expected the same in return. Ira was honest, straight forward, and if something bothered him, he spoke his mind. Over the years we would have intense discussions about Israel, sometimes at dinner at my house, other times over the phone or at a restaurant. Ira was honest, intelligent and well-informed; we talked about everything from politics to business. Of course food was also something we shared, in particular international cuisine, i.e. Indian food He loved Indian food. And Chinese too! He enjoyed coming over for dinner, and there were many years where he came to our "break fast" dinner. I did not know how creative Ira was until I visited his place in Santa Monica for the first time. I knew he was a good musician but I had no idea what a gifted artist he was. I was impressed with his many paintings displayed throughout the condo. Ira was talented. I have lots of indelible memories of Ira, but there is one that always makes me smile and laugh and that is when Ira came over the night before I was going to live in Israel. I was at Carol's apartment. I had left something on the table, something quite important that had been prescribed by my doctor, that I was taking to Israel. Somehow it vanished and I was in a panic. Ira solved that problem by calling his brother, a doctor who filled out a prescription for me until Carol discovered in her purse a white compact that she had thought was her make-up.... we all laughed...and the rest was history! Over the years Ira would remind me of that incident. We will miss you Ira!

Published September 8th, 2020

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