Jews in the D
continued from page 15
16 | OCTOBER 10 • 2019
the early 1940s until he retired
at the age of 89. He mostly
monitored all the trucks that
came and went.
”
Rena’
s late husband, Jerry,
who had worked in sales, joined
the business in 1981 as Dave
Schwartz was preparing to
retire. Only one year later, as
Jerry was immersed in learning
warehouse operations, Schwartz
suffered a debilitating heart
attack and Jerry took charge,
turning to his son to help with
the transition.
“When I was 7 years old,
my grandfather started taking
me to work and instilled this
love for Porter Bottle in me,
”
recalls Larry, sometimes joined
by sister Doreen. “He’
d ask me
to stand on pallets — what he
called the stairway to heaven —
to screw in light bulbs.
“My grandfather made it
a cool and fun experience. I
had to pack and repack pal-
lets exactly the way they were
before, and I tooled around
with my grandfather on a
forklift. As I grew older, my
grandfather had me writing up
purchase orders.
”
When Larry was 12 and
his dad was in charge, the
two joined forces to redo the
filing system. Larry filled in
the information that Jerry had
not yet experienced. As Jerry
assumed leadership, Larry went
on to advance his education and
establish his own career path,
first as a database analyst and
later with his own eBay business
selling archival hobby supplies.
THE NEWEST GENERATIONS
After Jerry became ill and
passed away in 2007, Larry
closed his own business and
took charge of Porter Bottle
with the partnership of his
mom, and the two upgraded the
computer operations.
“When my dad stopped
working, we had a two-signa-
ture checkbook,
” says Rena,
whose responsibility at that
point was handling payments
beyond working days in a gift
store office.
“I would sign the checks
remembering my dad had
taught me to notice who would
be getting the checks. He told
me that the information would
stick in my mind and I might
need it someday.
“Since Larry had been away,
he didn’
t know the places that
sold to us, but I did. At that
point, I became the bookkeeper
and started going down to work
twice a week.
”
The youngest Schwartz
descendants — also having fun
with family business experi-
ences — have given their atten-
tion to inventory and packing
pallets for specific orders. They
include Evie Dickman 18;
Jillian Dickman, 11; and Jordyn
Tepman, 8.
Although functions, includ-
ing warehouse operations, auto-
mated over the years, family
values sustained. Members of
Adat Shalom Synagogue, the
family never opened on Shabbat
and felt a kinship with Jewish
customers developing kosher
products, such as wine and tra-
ditional cuisine.
When Porter greeting cards
go out in December, they’
re
always about good wishes for
the new year instead of religion.
As downtown development has
brought an enlarging Jewish
presence, family members have
met newcomers. Next door, a
modern apartment building has
housed Jewish tenants identified
by their showcasing both lulav
and etrog at Sukkot.
Ultimately, the family gets
the most direct satisfaction
from helping people, especial-
ly the ones launching busi-
nesses (from tasty pickles to
skin-soothing shea butter). It is
understood that customers’
suc-
cesses — with the use of Porter
containers — also brings them
success through return sales.
Since the beginning, the offi-
cial Porter acknowledgement
for walk-ins has remained:
“Welcome to Porter Bottle;
we’
re here to help you.
”
“When I was 7
years old, my
grandfather
started taking
me to work and
instilled this
love for Porter
Bottle in me,”
— LARRY TEPMAN
Rena and Larry Tepman of West
Bloomfield stand in front of their store.
JERRY ZOLYNSKY
JERRY ZOLYNSKY
11-year-old Jillian
Dickman of West
Bloomfield and
9-year-old Jordyn
Tepman look at
the bottles on dis-
play at the front
of the store.