Sylvania Twp. man co-owned Bassett Nut

2/19/2013

Nabih A. Nassar, 83, who along with his late brother owned and operated the Bassett Nut Co. for many years, died Saturday in Flower Hospital in Sylvania.

Mr. Nassar of Sylvania Township had been in and out of hospitals for two weeks and died of complications from heart problems, said his nephew, Fred Nassar.

He and his late brother, Hafiz Nassar, owned Bassett Nut Co. until 1985, when the business was sold to a local Toledo firm.

Bassett Nut Co. was started in 1928 in a garage on Magnolia Street by Sam Bassett, a distant relative from the same village as the Nassars.

In 1963, Hafiz Nassar bought the business, then d on Morris Street, and moved operations to a new headquarters at 43 S. Huron St.

Nabih Nassar joined the company in 1971 to handle finances. Under the brothers, the company expanded operations to open retail stores. They opened the first of Nuttime stores in the Franklin Park Mall, offering nuts — roasted, toasted, diced, or slivered; packaged or bulk — as well as domestic and imported candy.

Other retail stores opened in 1975 at the Southwyck Shopping Center and in 1976 at the Spitzer Arcade.

Fred Nassar said Nabih Nassar came to the United States in the 1950s after attending school and college in Southern Lebanon. He said he obtained a master’s degree in business from the University of Toledo and then worked for an oil company in Libya.

He said he returned to the United States after four years and went to work for the Chicago-based Armour Co., traveling extensively.

In retirement, Fred Nassar said, his uncle invested in the stock market. Reading the Wall Street Journal was among his interests, Fred Nassar said.

Hafiz Nassar died in August, 2010.

There are no immediate survivors.

Services will be at 11 a.m. today in St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church, 4940 Harroun Rd., Sylvania. Arrangements are by the Walker Funeral Home.

The family suggests that tributes be made to the church.