Family Business

J. Albert Maddox Sr., who owned and operated a commercial printing business, died of an esophageal disorder Tuesday at Sinai Hospital. The Owings Mills resident was 85. Born in Baltimore and raised on Druid Hill Avenue, he was a 1940 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. After serving in the Army during World War II in the Pacific, he joined a printing business established by his father, Gabriel B. Maddox Sr. Mr. Maddox worked alongside his brothers, Francis J. and Gabriel Maddox Jr., at the family business for several years until he went to work as a printer for the Afro-American newspapers.

Trimpers consider ending long Ocean City ride ... After entertaining generations of beach-goers with a conglomeration of rides, arcades and games, Ocean City's signature boardwalk business - Trimper Rides - could be headed for its 117th and final season. Members of the family that runs the company say skyrocketing tax assessments, along with disputes among shareholders, could force them to close after this summer unless they get some form of tax abatement or other financial help. Doug Trimper, vice president of the family business that controls most of a three-block parcel from Dorchester Street to the Ocean City Inlet at the southern tip of the old downtown district, said yesterday that the familiar whirling rides and noisy arcades will be open this summer.

On December 22, 2007, BRUCE CARL DIETLE, of Kingsville, MD, born 1/19/1924. Husband of the late Susan Belcher Dietle, beloved father of Daryl, Marlin, Melissa Anne Willams and Diane Dietle Pellegrini, grandfather of Brian, Kelsey, Travis, and Elizabeth, great grandfather of Liam. Survived by his sister Ada Goodwin and family. Pre-deceased by brother Sylvester and sister Catherine Deal. Born in Pocahontas, Pa , he spent his early years working at the home farm. A WWII veteran of the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper, fighting in the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge.

Anthony Thomas Jeppi, longtime proprietor of Baltimore's Jeppi Nut and Candy Co., died Monday from complications of diabetes at Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. He was 92.Mr. Jeppi headed the family business founded by his father, John Jeppi, in 1884 as a fruit and vegetable stall at the old Hanover Market at Sharp and Camden streets. The elder Jeppi, who died in 1943, immigrated to America from Cefalu, Italy."Peanuts moved very well at that location, and soon my father began specializing in all kinds of nuts," Mr. Jeppi told The Sunday Sun Magazine in 1975.

Edwina D. Ruhl, 87, bakery supply officialEdwina D. Ruhl, who worked with her husband in the Baltimore bakery-supply business that was founded by his family in 1789, died Tuesday at her Roland Park home of heart failure complicated by a bone infection. She was 87.Born in 1910 in Denton, the former Edwina Downes graduated from Girls' Latin School. She earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in 1931.In 1932, she married George R. Ruhl Jr., president of George R. Ruhl & Son Inc. In 1993, Fortune magazine listed the corporation as the ninth-oldest business in the country.

Albert Johnson, 73, a film critic and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, died Saturday of a heart attack in Chicago, where he was attending a film festival.Winnie Ruth Judd, 93, who spent 40 years in a mental hospital for killing two women and shipping their bodies to Los Angeles, died Friday in Phoenix. She became known across the nation as the "Trunk Murderess" after she was convicted in the Oct. 16, 1931, murders of Anne LeRoi, 32, and Hedvig "Sammy" Samuelson, 24.Alan Sainsbury, 96, who pioneered supermarkets in Britain and helped build a family grocery empire, died Wednesday at his home in Toppesfield, a village in Essex county, east of London.

The school year is in full swing and that means fund raising is in full swing. Kids are hitting the streets trying to raise money for band, sports teams and sometimes just better school equipment. They come offering gift wrap, jumbo candy bars and, of course, pizza kits.Around here, pizza kits are a family business -- but the families are in competition.The most well-known pizza kit comes from Joe Corbi, who started selling crusts at his father's Dundalk bakery when he was 14 and has turned the kit business into a multi-million-dollar enterprise.

In a small tire shop on Pulaski Highway, past the neon lights of the liquor store that used to be a family restaurant, sandwiched between the auto paint store that was once a brick manufacturing company and the vacant-lot-turned-palm-reading business, one constant endures.complained when one of Lackey's tires was brought out, saying she had asked for a used tire, not a new one. It's a story he recounts again and again, and each time, remembering the magic his brush strokes produced, he smiles so broadly that his eyes almost disappear.

Albert "Bud" Hendler, retired president of Hendler Creamery Co., which produced ice cream in the Baltimore area for 60 years, died of heart failure Sunday at Brightwood Center, a retirement community in Brooklandville. He was 86.In 1955, Mr. Hendler took over operation of the company that was founded by his father, L. Manuel Hendler, in 1905. The company was in the former Baltimore City Passenger Railway Co. powerhouse in the 1100 block of E. Baltimore St. and was bought by Borden Co. in 1929.

Stephen J. Glick was a man who wasn't happy until he knew exactly how things worked.This obsession made him an expert on every obscure regulation in golf, prevented him from having fun with a pocket computer until he'd figured out all of its functions and led him to the top at Rose Shanis, the personal loan business his mother founded in 1932."

Nathan Eleck Nusinov, the eldest son of the founder of Charles Nusinov & Sons, a Parkville jewelry store, died Sept. 24 of heart failure at Sinai Hospital. The longtime Owings Mills resident was 89. Born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Mr. Nusinov and his parents fled to Buenos Aires to escape religious persecution and to wait until they were able to obtain a U.S. visa. In 1923, the family settled in Baltimore, and Charles Nusinov, a jeweler, established his business, Charles Nusinov & Sons, on Baltimore Street.

Louis Francis Machacek, former owner of a Towson dry cleaning and tailoring establishment and a big-band buff, died Sunday of complications from an infection at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 87. Mr. Machacek was born and raised over the family business, Smrcina's Cleaners, which was established in 1913 by his grandfather in the 400 block of York Road. He was a 1938 graduate of Towson Catholic High School and earned a bachelor's degree in business from Loyola College in 1942.

Michael Harry Kostinsky of Ellicott City, a small-business advocate in Annapolis and Washington, died Thursday, after suffering an apparent heart attack at his Arbutus restaurant. He was 56. Mr. Kostinsky transformed his father's pizza and sub shop, Sorrento of Arbutus, into a full-service restaurant and catering business; it has become a community fixture that employs more than 25 people. "I grew up with Sorrento," said former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who said he has eaten hundreds of meals there and liked the thin-crust pizza with extra sauce and mushrooms.

Since the early 1960s, Mrs. Pose has been, arguably, Baltimore's most famous dessert baker. The signature cheesecake she began selling in 1962 remains a staple of local restaurants, country clubs and delis. She says it has "the texture of ice cream." Her name is Lois Gibbons (she was once really Mrs. Posey) and lives in Sebring, Fla., while spending the summer and Christmas at her daughter's Lutherville home. She plays golf three times a week and only stopped cleaning her own house when her right leg developed a meniscus tear.

Edward Stonewall "Eddie" Tochterman, former co-owner of T.G. Tochterman & Sons, the venerable Eastern Avenue tackle shop that has kept fishermen in rods and reels for more than 90 years, died in his sleep Sunday at Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville. He was 92. Mr. Tochterman, the son of Thomas G. and Anna K. Tochterman, was born at home at 244 S. Ann St. In 1916, the family moved to 1925 Eastern Ave., where they established a confectionary store. His father, who also worked at the Booth Fishery in the old Marsh Market, used to bring home unsold fish, fresh peelers or soft crabs, and sold them to streetcar-bound fishermen traveling to the Eastern Baltimore County fishing grounds.

If you are in a small business that is also a family business, you probably heard warnings about the pitfalls of working with relatives. When bringing family members into a business for the first time, especially as investors or in a startup situation, consider putting the business relationship in writing. Many small companies would never have survived without dedicated family members. But avoid favoritism. Pay scales, promotions, work schedules, criticism and praise should be evenhanded between family and non-family employees.

Good-bye Bun Penny, a mall tradition Hello, my name is McKenzie Ditter. My father owns Bun Penny in the Columbia Mall and I regret to tell you that we will be closing down at some point in the next three weeks. Bun Penny stopped being profitable quite a long time ago, but my father now cannot even break even thanks to the mall's skyrocketing rent. The Bun Penny market and cafe has been a part of the Columbia Mall for nearly 40 years, and my family has owned it for the past 18. We have always struggled to survive in the mall, but after General Growth Properties' acquisition of the Rouse Company, it has become impossible.

On December 22, 2007, BRUCE CARL DIETLE, of Kingsville, MD, born 1/19/1924. Husband of the late Susan Belcher Dietle, beloved father of Daryl, Marlin, Melissa Anne Willams and Diane Dietle Pellegrini, grandfather of Brian, Kelsey, Travis, and Elizabeth, great grandfather of Liam. Survived by his sister Ada Goodwin and family. Pre-deceased by brother Sylvester and sister Catherine Deal. Born in Pocahontas, Pa , he spent his early years working at the home farm. A WWII veteran of the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper, fighting in the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge.

Arthur Kargman Painter, wallpaper hanger, business owner Kargmans Inc., Owings Mills Salary --$80,000 plus profits Age --38 Years on the job --24 How he got started --Kargman's father and uncle began hanging wallpaper in the late 1960s while living in Ukraine. When they moved to the United States in 1979, they continued to work on a part-time basis as a way to make extra money. In 1981, the two went full time and expanded their company to include interior and exterior painting and light carpentry work.

Trimpers consider ending long Ocean City ride ... After entertaining generations of beach-goers with a conglomeration of rides, arcades and games, Ocean City's signature boardwalk business - Trimper Rides - could be headed for its 117th and final season. Members of the family that runs the company say skyrocketing tax assessments, along with disputes among shareholders, could force them to close after this summer unless they get some form of tax abatement or other financial help. Doug Trimper, vice president of the family business that controls most of a three-block parcel from Dorchester Street to the Ocean City Inlet at the southern tip of the old downtown district, said yesterday that the familiar whirling rides and noisy arcades will be open this summer.