<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr">Ah, Fred Grampp—brings back memories.</div><div dir="ltr">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.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">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.</div><div dir="ltr"><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>From:</b> Brian Walden <tuhscuzuco.com><br><b>Date:</b> January 6, 2024 at 6:25:28 PM EST<br><b>To:</b> tuhs@tuhs.org<br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[TUHS] Re: Fred Grampp</b><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>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.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Here's a non-paywalled link that also mentions it is indeed the old Singer factory: https://newjersey.news12.com/elizabeth-nj-fire-industrial-building</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 11:12 AM M Douglas McIlroy <m.douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu> wrote:</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Serendipitous find! I hadn't realized that Fred had been the third</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>generation in the hardware store.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>His father ("Pops") retired to Drayton Island in the St Johns River</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Fred often visited him, driving the 19-hour trip in one stint.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Doug</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 6:47 PM Brian Walden <tuhs at cuzuco.com> wrote:</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>Amazing coincidences. A week prior I was researching Topper Toys</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>looking for their old factory ("largest toy factory in the world")</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>As there was litte on it's location and it lead me to find out</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>in 1961 it took over the old Singer Factory in Elizabeth, NJ.</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>So looking up the Singer factory led me to "Elizabeth,</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>New Jersey, Then and Now" by Robert J. Baptista</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>https://ia801304.us.archive.org/11/items/ElizabethNewJerseyThenAndNowSecondEdition2015/ElizabethNewJerseyThenNowThirdEditionApril102018607Pages.pdf</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>Which had no information on Topper, but had had this paragraph in it's Singer</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>section on page 28 --</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span> Boys earned money "rushing the growler" at lunchtime at the Singer plant.</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span> German workers lowered their covered beer pails, called growlers, on ropes</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span> to the boys waiting below. They earned a nickel by filling them with beer</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span> at Grampp's saloon on Trumbull St. One of these boys was Thomas Dunn who</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span> later became a long term Mayor. In the early 1920s Frederick Grampp went</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span> into the hardware business at the corner of Elizabeth Ave. and Reid St.</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>When I read it I thought funny, as I know the name Fred Grampp. But beleived</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>just a coincidenental same name. After reading the biography post, I went back</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>to the book as it turns out that Fred Grampp is your Fred Grampps's</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>grandfather. You can find more his family and the hardware store and</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>Grampp himself on pages 163-164, and 212.</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>-Brian</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote></div></blockquote></body></html>