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Nemenz family vows to carry on Henry’s grocery legacy
By Kalea Hall
STRUTHERS
It’s a Saturday morning at Nemenz IGA on Creed Street in Struthers.
The store has its crowd of dedicated customers stopping in for the essentials of fresh meats and made-from-scratch baked goods.
All is the usual at the store, except for one missing piece: Henry P. Nemenz Sr.
Henry was not just the president and CEO of H.P. Nemenz Food Stores Inc., he was a family man with four children, 10 grandchildren and a community of people who still feel his presence, four months after his sudden death at 76.
“He was pretty much in the stores every day,” said Judy Nemenz Gabriele. “He was proud of the whole store.”
Let’s step back in time. The year was 1930 and Gustav Nemenz, an immigrant from Transylvania, decided to open a meat shop in North Lima. Gustav was a sausage maker by trade. His son, Henry, was born in 1938. Henry and his siblings, two brothers and one sister, were taught the trade as grocers. In 1956, Gustav took on one of the locally started Valu King franchises in New Middletown.
“It was one of the first Valu King stores,” Gabriele said.
Henry worked at Valu King as a meat cutter and later went on to open his own Valu King in 1976 in Boardman. The name and number of his stores may have changed during his life as a well-known grocer in the Mahoning Valley, but his passion never did.
“He had it in his blood,” Gabriele said. “He spent all of his spare time here in this store.”
Henry’s children followed suit.
Judy and her husband, Don Gabriele, who has worked for Nemenz for 30 years, run two IGA stores and six Save-A-Lot stores.
Henry Sr.’s two other children, Elaine Nemenz Kawecki, her husband, John, and Henry Jr., branched off from their father’s business 16 years ago. Together they operate 14 Save-A-Lots and other stores mostly in Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania. Henry Sr. also has a third daughter, Joyce Herubin.
“It becomes who you are and what you do,” Henry Jr. said. “Dad taught us. If it wasn’t for him, then we wouldn’t be where we are. We have been blessed for that; for the most part, successful at it, and hopefully we’ll continue to be.”
Henry Sr. felt blessed for his father’s teachings and perseverance. He passed that along to his children.
All of his children spent much of their time in the stores. Judy worked in the meat department starting at 15 and as a cashier. Her job evolved after college as the head of human resources.
Elaine worked in the produce, deli, bakery and floral departments.
“I made ice cream, too,” she said.
All of the Nemenz children had to spend some time bagging groceries. One summer, Judy recalls spending every day scrubbing the shelves, which wasn’t the easiest job. If you didn’t work hard enough, Grandpa Gus was there to tell you.
“He expected everyone to work very hard,” Judy said.
The Nemenz family was, and still is, proud of the stores. From the freshly made, iced-to-perfection cakes to the wrapped-to-perfection meats, the store brings a personal touch to those who go there every day, every week or every month.
Henry Sr.’s children know how to run a store. But the hardest part for them is his missing presence.
“He entered a room, and you knew it,” Henry said.
He was a community man with decades of accolades from small business person of the year to citizen of the year. Henry Sr. didn’t separate the two. He was both a businessman and a community man.
He was a member of the Poland Rotary Club, chairman of the American Cancer Society, a former board member of Hospice of the Valley, First Federal Savings Bank of Youngstown and several other organizations.
“Someone told me I have big shoes to fill, and I still think today I could never do that because of everything he did for the community,” Henry Jr. said.
He was just a generous man with a twinkle in his eye who would help those who asked – like Gustav who came to America with almost no money, started a meat shop and gave away meat during the Depression.
“I knew he was important,” Judy said of Henry. “It goes beyond what I realized. It’s just an outpouring of support and condolences all over.”
His impact on the Valley was felt even more in June when word of his death spread.
“A lot of people were shocked and surprised,” Judy said.
“He was in the store the day before he went to the hospital.”
Henry Sr. may not physically be there, but he’s there to his family and still giving them direction.
“I half expect him to be standing there,” Judy said.
“We are going to carry on in his tradition, and it is going to continue as a family. We are going to keep going as a family,” Henry Jr. said.