Content about Person Relation

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Rochester is probably best known for being the home of the world famous Mayo Clinic, founded in 1889. It is Rochester’s economic center, employing some 30,000 people in the city of roughly 108,000.

But for the staffers of Dison (pronounced dee-son) Cleaners, former and present, Rochester is home to another longtime community fixture that holds a much more special place in their hearts. His name is Leland.

Earlier this year—on June 2, to be precise—Leland Bierbaum, 86, marked 65 years of service as the company’s bookkeeper. That’s right—65 years.It is his first and only job.

It was the summer of 1947 when Harold “Hap” Dison Sr., grandfather of current owners Mark and Greg Dison, hired Bierbaum. He started out making $35 a week and worked every day but Sundays.

MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Raymond C. “Ray” Colucci, of Mamaroneck and Long Island, N.Y., died July 18 at the Nyack Manor Nursing Home in Rockland County, N.Y., after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 86.

Born June 24, 1926, to Amadeo and Ida Colucci of New York, he was married Aug. 7, 1949, to Barbara Sohier following his service in the Armed Forces. She preceded him in death in November 2004.

Colucci will be remembered as a professional who helped pioneer dry cleaning. He and his brothers along with their father once owned the largest dry cleaning store in the Bronx, Colucci and Sons Dry Cleaners.

After his graduation from the Fashion Institute of Technology, he launched a sales and marketing career, finally acceding to vice president of marketing at Rheem Textile, the company from which he retired in the 1990s.

He continued as a writer and consultant to the fabricare industry, and was a frequent contributor to a dry cleaning trade magazine.

BURBANK, Calif. — When Milt Chortkoff retired from dry cleaning in 1983, he was an old hand at it. Having started out at his father’s plant, Hollyway Laundry & Dry Cleaners in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, in 1939, he had already spent more than 40 years in the trade. It was, he thought, time for rest and relaxation. And so Chortkoff and his wife, Edie, retired to travel the world.

And after just a couple of years, “I got very bored,” he says.

Powerless against the pull of the business he grew up in, and eager to champion the service credos he had learned throughout the years, Chortkoff re-entered dry cleaning as a consultant. And soon enough, he found himself consulting at a plant that he could buy and run as his own. “I love the action,” he says. “After all, I’ve worked in a cleaners since I was 10 years old. I just love the business.”

CINCINNATI — Sid Millman, founder of H-M Commercial Laundry Equipment, died Oct. 17. He was 81.

Millman, who was raised by his immigrant mother and grandparents, was driven by his humble beginnings. He started selling newspapers at age 5.

In 1957, he purchased a small residential appliance repair shop in downtown Cincinnati, brought in a partner, and created H-M Company, a commercial laundry equipment distributorship now run by his two sons, Mike and Steve.

“H-M Company exists today because of my father’s founding principles and his unyielding belief in honesty and customer service,” says Steve Millman.

“My dad was always a giver, someone who was more focused on other people than himself,” says Mike Millman.

A pioneer in the laundry industry, Sid Millman established H-M Company as General Electric’s first commercial distributor and engineered H-M’s widely used drain troughs.

He was an Air Force veteran who served during the Korean War. Shortly after returning home from the service, he met Bernice Markell. They married in 1956.

MIAMI — Ronald “Ron” London, vice president of drycleaning equipment sales for Steiner-Atlantic for 18 years, died from cancer June 24. He specialized in the sale, design, planning and start-up of new plants, as well as the sale of replacement items, for the company.

After serving in the U.S. Navy, London began working in coin-op laundry equipment sales and then moved to drycleaning equipment. He joined Nate and Bill Becker in forming Best Equipment Co. in Philadelphia in 1962. The company reorganized after the recession of 1973, and London formed London Equipment Co., operating in the same building with the same staff.

With the growth of dry-to-dry drycleaning machines, he allied with the local Miraclean importer, who provided the equipment and financing he needed. The arrangement worked well for a number of years, but sales dropped as the market filled.

London moved in 1992 to South Florida, where he began his long association with Steiner-Atlantic.

He is survived by his wife, Loretta; sister, Lauren; four sons, Richard, Charles, Hal and Brian; two daughters, Tami and Denise; and 12 grandchildren.

Thank you to the more than 700 drycleaners and distributors who have visited our cramped 10-by-10-foot booth.

Thank you all for validating our decision to create a pouch for hangers. Your enthusiastic response has been thrilling to us.

Thank you to everyone who not only wanted a sample of our new shirt box bag, but proudly displayed it as you continued to walk the convention floor.

MANNING, S.C. — A South Carolina drycleaning clerk suffered a gunshot wound to the head during a robbery last month and survived to tell the tale on NBC’s Today show yesterday. A nationwide manhunt for the gunman is underway.

According to police reports, the man walked into Manning’s City Laundry & Cleaners at about 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 22. He fired a shot into the ceiling and told 23-year-old clerk Heather Brammer to give him the money in the register.

CHICAGO, Ill. — Two longtime industry operators, Bobby Landers and Charles Grant, passed away over the summer. Both were active and influential in the industry and will be missed by family and friends.

Robert Daniell “Bobby” Landers passed away early this summer at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. He was 72.