Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Running into family in unexpected places

The father of a friend of the boyfriend's died this week, unfortunately, but when the bf told me the news, he said, "Guess where the wake is going to be. Stutzmann's." R. Stutzmann and Son is the official name of the funeral home and it's just a little bizarre to look at that name on the side of the building and know that R. Stutzmann was my great great grandfather, Rudolph. He opened the doors at his first location in Ridgewood, Queens, in 1901. The funeral home is no longer a family business - it was bought out by a conglomerate some years ago (think what the Fishers were trying to avoid in Six Feet Under, if you ever watched that show) - but the name is still there so I guess it's still part of Rudolph's legacy. He was a real mover and shaker in his day and though I think of him every time I see a Ridgewood Savings Bank (which he helped found and of which he was the first president) it's kind of cool to see his name still attached to the other successful business he founded.

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