Port Clinton woman ran 2 successful firms with spouse

9/18/2005

PORT CLINTON - Dorothy "Betty" Schade, who was a long-time business owner here with her husband, died Friday in Otterbein Northshore Retirement Community, Lakeside, Ohio. She was 84.

Mrs. Schade died of natural causes, her son Greg Schade said.

A smart woman with a creative business sense, Mrs. Schade and her late husband, George W. Schade, Sr., who died in 2003, owned and operated two businesses in Port Clinton.

The Young and Schade Co. was a gift shop they ran for 16 years.

Schade's Offset Printing produced business cards, invitations, brochures, and any other paper product needed by their customers.

"She's always been involved in the business," Mr. Schade said.

"She was an assertive female before it was popular to be."

"They were the first people in Port Clinton to sell Hula Hoops," Mr. Schade said. "They were something new and a novelty. They sold out of them all the time."

While they sold gifts, office supplies, and greeting cards in the shop, they also dabbled with a printing press in the back.

In 1963, they decided to go solely into printing and converted the gift shop.

Each of their children worked in their parents' stores, which helped them learn both family values and business ethics, Mr. Schade said.

"They were inseparable," Mr. Schade said. "They worked together almost every day for 60 years. I don't know how they managed to do it, to be honest."

The business was closed shortly after the elder Mr. Schade died.

Mrs. Schade was a 1939 graduate of Port Clinton High School and a graduate of the Toledo School of Business.

She was a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church and Chapter A1 of the PEO Sisterhood in Port Clinton, a philanthropic educational organization for women.

She was captain of the Port Clinton Yacht Club Shipmates in 1951 and helped organize many social events for the club.

Mrs. Schade was an avid reader and enjoyed needlepoint, knitting, and crocheting.

Surviving are her sons, Greg, and James Schade; daughter, Mary Jo Milke; sister, Mary Margaret Krupp; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

There will be no visitation. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow in Trinity United Methodist Church, Port Clinton. Arrangements are by Gerner-Wolf-Walker Funeral Home, Port Clinton.

The family suggests tributes to Trinity United Methodist Church or Stein Hospice Service.