Abner Silver, 79, traded legal career for cheesesteaks

Abner Silver, 79, who traded in a law career four decades ago to buy into Jim's Steaks on South Street, died Tuesday, Jan. 13, from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

"He loved Philadelphia," said Kenneth Silver, one of Mr. Silver's sons. "He didn't like the practice of law."

Mr. Silver, a graduate of Overbrook High School and Temple University's law school, initially worked in the District Attorney's Office but moved on to a private practice.

In 1976, Mr. Silver met William Proetto, who in the mid-1960s had bought Jim's Steaks at 62d and Noble Streets in West Philadelphia, and wanted to expand the business founded in 1939 by Jim Perligni (by some accounts, Pearligni).

Proetto and Mr. Silver selected the southwest corner of Fourth and South Streets for their two-level shop with black and white tile, where the line routinely snakes throughout out the front door.

"It was just hippies and beatniks and Fabric Row down there then," Kenneth Silver said of the intersection that now is also home to a Starbucks and the Copabanana restaurant.

South Street was thrown into flux in the 1970s, as plans for a crosstown expressway had been scuttled shortly before and businesses catering to young people - such as J.C. Dobbs and the Theater of the Living Arts - were moving in.

The location was a natural for cheesesteaks, even by then a tourist favorite, thanks to Pat's and Geno's in South Philadelphia. "He loved [steaks] because of how relevant and how meaningful they are to Philly," Kenneth Silver said.

Mr. Silver also had a shop called Abner's at 38th and Chestnut Streets.

He assumed sole ownership of the Fourth and South Streets location after Proetto died in 2011.

By then, Mr. Silver had begun showing the effects of Alzheimer's disease, his son said. Kenneth Silver was selling computer software at the time, but assumed control of the business.

The Proetto family controls the original Jim's location, as well as shops in Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia and Springfield, Delaware County.

Seeking warmth in the winter, Mr. Silver moved to Phoenix. In the summers, he and his wife, Joan, had a house on Long Beach Island. "But when he was there," Kenneth Silver said, "he was in Philadelphia. You could never take the Philadelphia out of the boy."

In addition to his son, Mr. Silver is survived by his wife of 51 years; daughter Lizabeth Kelsey; son Michael; and four grandchildren.

A memorial will be held at Main Line Reform Temple, 410 Montgomery Ave., Wynnewood, at 11 a.m. Friday. The family will receive relatives and friends immediately afterward.

Donations may be made in his memory to the Jewish Community Center of Long Beach Island, 2411 Long Beach Blvd., Spray Beach, N.J. 08008, and/or the Alzheimer's Association Delaware Valley, 399 Market St., No. 102, Philadelphia 19106.