Wednesday October 2, 2019

5 inductees, including 3 women, join Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame at Thursday event

From The Cincinnati Enquirer:

The Greater Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame will add five new inductees on Thursday and the event will be a first for the 28-year-old hall.

Three of the laureates will be women – Patty Brisben, Mary Beth Price and the late Maria Longworth Storer. J. Phillip Holloman and the late Alphonse Neyer round out the inductees.

Junior Achievement of OKI Partners Inc. is hosting the induction event at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. The hall of fame, based at the Cincinnati Museum Center, recognizes leaders for their business acumen and community involvement.

The late Alphonse Neyer

The Al. Neyer story is a father and son tale that spans five generations. Alphonse Neyer (1901-1979), was the son of a son of a carpenter. His grandfather, Gerard Joseph, immigrated from Germany. In 1894 Gerard’s son, Joe, turned the family trade into a small commercial construction company specializing in schools and churches.

Joe’s son, Al, graduated from St. Xavier High School and became the third generation to enter the business. By 1928, he was running the family business from the basement of a home in Mount Lookout.

After the stock market crashed, the banks called the loans on Neyer’s real estate. Neyer lost everything but his homestead. As family lore goes, he made ends meet by taking a mortgage on the house and picking up small remodeling projects, occasionally using his preteen sons, Ray and Don.

The boys learned the construction business from their father, who also insisted they do something Al had not done; get college degrees. Ray became the civil engineer in the family, Don the finance and youngest son Tom majored in mathematics. After Ray and Don returned from the Korean war, they joined the family business and Tom joined after graduating college.

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