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Hyman "Hymie" Needelman
Hyman “Hymie” Needelman wasn’t a famous guy in Metro Detroit, nor a community activist or anything like that.
But his passing last Thursday is worth noting. He was a true character, 5-foot 8, with glasses, a man who knew Yiddish, the father of a good friend, Paul Needelman, who I grew up with.
He wasn’t one of the kind, but the last of a kind; a tough guy, a man's man, extremely funny, a guy who could have sat around the deli with Don Rickles and made the comedian laugh.
He was a Detroit businessman for a while. Then, for some 35 years, he sold industrial tools and supplies to machine shops and garage mechanics from the trunk of his car. Hymie, who lived in West Bloomfield, was buried on Monday at age 97.
My favorite story about Hymie was the time he drove cross-country from Michigan to California with his oldest son Lenny, who was moving out there.
They stopped in Oklahoma for a break and a panhandler came up to Hymie, and asked him if he could “lend” him a few dollars.
Hymie, very matter-of-factly, replied: “I’m sorry, I’m not from here.”
The guy looked at him and said “Ok” and proceeded to walk away.
He was born on April 18, 1917 in Russia. In 1921, his family escaped from Russia and came to America. The family settled in the Cincinnati area.
“He was a survivor in the truest sense of the word,” said his son Paul during a eulogy at Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak Park on Monday. “Let me clarify that he wasn’t what we classically know and honor as a 'Survivor” with a capital S'….He was a survivor in another sense of the word growing up as the oldest of three kids during the height of the Depression in a rural area outside of Cincinnati where his father owned a junkyard.”
He went to trade school to help bring in more income to help his family survive.
He eventually married Freda Kurtz and they came to Detroit where they had family. He started a driving school and then a local appliance repair store, Hy’s Trade and Swap Shop on Grand River near the old Olympia in Detroit. Ironically, his wife Freda never learned to drive.
After nearly 20 years, in the early 1970s, he moved his business out of Detroit and started up and a repair and swap shop in Clawson. After that, he got into selling tools.
Two and half years ago, his wife Freda died at age 94. He was on his own. His children lived out of town and would come visit. So he got a part-time caregiver and driver, a retiree named Fred Safran, who gave a very touching eulogy at the funeral on Monday, talking about the great affection he developed for Hymie, even at times when Hymie said something mean to him.
His daughter Phyllis Needelman said in the funeral program that her father "laid the foundation of hard work, love of family and a crazy sense of humor."
His son Lenny, who traveled across the country in the 1980s with his dad, wrote in the funeral program about their travels. Lenny had gotten laid off as a restaurant manager for the May company, and his father was setting him in the tool business.
"We got a truck and loaded one up and took off from Michigan to San Diego. We spent 10 days driving and selling tools on the road. We learned a lot about each other and the funny thing that we never turned on the radio one time. We had conversation the whole time, and when all was said and done, years later, I still remember every part of it.”
