Ah, Fred Grampp—brings back memories.
For several years Fred had an office next to mine in Building 7 @ Murray Hill. I used to come in early to share a pot of lapsang souchong tea and listen to Fred’s stories. I still retell some of them today.
In 1981 Fred picked us up at Newark Airport when my wife and I returned from vacation. He told me my Department Head was perturbed that he couldn’t reach me while we were away (I hadn’t left a contact number). He then (while driving) opened two cans of beer to toast my promotion to supervisor which had been announced. I was duly surprised.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Walden <tuhscuzuco.com>
Date: January 6, 2024 at 6:25:28 PM EST
To: tuhs@tuhs.org
Subject: [TUHS] Re: Fred Grampp
This isn't directly UNIX related, and yes, the thread is 3 years old. But since it made national news last night, probably due to its proximity to Newark Airport. The enormous fire in Elizabeth, NJ, I recognized in the local news as the old Singer factory. That factory was the catalyst that linked me into finding out more on Fred Grampp, and his ancestry.Here's a non-paywalled link that also mentions it is indeed the old Singer factory: https://newjersey.news12.com/elizabeth-nj-fire-industrial-buildingOn Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 11:12 AM M Douglas McIlroy <m.douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu> wrote:
Serendipitous find! I hadn't realized that Fred had been the third
generation in the hardware store.
His father ("Pops") retired to Drayton Island in the St Johns River
about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.
Fred often visited him, driving the 19-hour trip in one stint.
Doug
On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 6:47 PM Brian Walden <tuhs at cuzuco.com> wrote:
Amazing coincidences. A week prior I was researching Topper Toys
looking for their old factory ("largest toy factory in the world")
As there was litte on it's location and it lead me to find out
in 1961 it took over the old Singer Factory in Elizabeth, NJ.
So looking up the Singer factory led me to "Elizabeth,
New Jersey, Then and Now" by Robert J. Baptista
https://ia801304.us.archive.org/11/items/ElizabethNewJerseyThenAndNowSecondEdition2015/ElizabethNewJerseyThenNowThirdEditionApril102018607Pages.pdf
Which had no information on Topper, but had had this paragraph in it's Singer
section on page 28 --
Boys earned money "rushing the growler" at lunchtime at the Singer plant.
German workers lowered their covered beer pails, called growlers, on ropes
to the boys waiting below. They earned a nickel by filling them with beer
at Grampp's saloon on Trumbull St. One of these boys was Thomas Dunn who
later became a long term Mayor. In the early 1920s Frederick Grampp went
into the hardware business at the corner of Elizabeth Ave. and Reid St.
When I read it I thought funny, as I know the name Fred Grampp. But beleived
just a coincidenental same name. After reading the biography post, I went back
to the book as it turns out that Fred Grampp is your Fred Grampps's
grandfather. You can find more his family and the hardware store and
Grampp himself on pages 163-164, and 212.
-Brian