Community, friends and family mourn respected hardware man Erv Grulke

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

Rogers City has lost another cornerstone business owner with the passing of Ervin Grulke last week at the age of 87. He had been battling Parkinson?s disease for a decade. His full obituary appears on page 7A. Grulke was in the hardware business for more than 60 years, starting his career at Krueger Hardware at the age of 14.

Grulke took over the business and eventually moved into the Larke building at the corner of North Third and Huron, which remains one of the oldest commercial structures in town. While son Neil Grulke took over the day-to-day operation in 2000, Erv remained active at the business until he was 83.

Erv?s customers believed he could fix nearly anything, and if someone needed something from the store, he would get it, even if it was after hours. At Monday?s wake, daughter Connie Standen said, ?We heard a lot of stories today, people said they always liked going in there because he was fun to visit.? ?That was his life,? said son Dave Grulke. ?He was there to serve.?

Grulke also was known as a family man, putting all seven of his children through St. John Lutheran School. He also served as a church usher. ?We never had a lot of money, but we had everything else,? said Standen. ?One of

my great memories is from our vacations on Lake Nettie, staying a week in the house on Brege Island,? said Dave. ?We didn?t leave the island, we stayed right there.? ?He attended all of our games, he took us fishing and we did a lot together. He was a great dad,? said Standen. ?He loved the grandkids. We had some pictures of him with the grand kids at the funeral home, and you could just see the love in his eyes.? The 1941 Rogers City High School graduate served in Germany in World War II and is a charter member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 607 of Rogers City. He married Elaine Bruning on July 3, 1943.

In 2008, he was honored as co-grand marshal of the Nautical Festival with Evelyn Heller, owner of Heller?s Gift Shop. Since last May, the community has lost two other cornerstone business owners, Emil Plath Jr., owner of Plath?s Meats, along with Dick Rygwelski in late February. He was the former owner of Rygwelski?s IGA. Grulke was an active bowler and enjoyed fishing. Pastor John Schreiber and Erv?s son, pastor Galen Grulke officiated at the service Tuesday at St. John Lutheran Church. ?It?s a loss for us,? said Dave. ?His faith was strong. Now, we can rejoice that he is in heaven.?