Theresa Brint, 1931-2013: Sylvania Township woman helped run Brint Electric

Theresa Rose Brint.

Theresa Brint, who worked with her husband, Ray, as the business he started in the family basement grew into one of the largest electrical contracting firms in the Toledo area, died Thursday in her Sylvania Township home. She was 81.

She had Alzheimer’s disease. Her husband cared for her at home with the help of home health workers, her daughter Nan Vantrease said.

Mrs. Brint retired in 1995 as vice president of Brint Electric.

As the business moved up from the basement, its birthplace in 1970, to a building on West Central Avenue, Mrs. Brint taught herself the tasks that kept the business running smoothly — payroll and bookkeeping; paying the bills, and making sure clients paid the firm for work done.

Brint Electric, in time, was hired when schools and hospitals and major retail outlets were built or renovated. It worked on the restoration of the Valentine Theatre and the expansion of the main Toledo-Lucas County Public Library downtown.

“We just grew and grew and grew,” she told The Blade in 2004.

Their son Raymond, who eventually joined the firm, said: “They enjoyed working and had a great work ethic.”

Their offices usually were side by side, although they had worked at adjoining desks.

“They balanced each other out,” daughter Nan said. “Mom was more of the social outgoing person. She was the life of the party.

“She was a person you’d want to meet. She was a very positive person, [with] a beautiful smile and laughter that was contagious.”

The couple had six children, and Mrs. Brint kept the household running, which made for long days.

“She never stopped. She had the energy of two or three people,” son Raymond said. “Now I look back and wonder how she did it all.”

Mrs. Brint cooked family meals, too, and her specialties included chicken soup with spaetzle served over mashed potatoes.

“Everything was homemade and delicious,” daughter Nan said.

The couple enjoyed visiting Caribbean islands, especially Aruba and Antigua, and traveled to Europe. A cottage on Little Long Lake near Fremont, Ind., became the family’s summer weekend refuge.

“They got to see their kids grow up there and grandchildren growing up there,” daughter Nan said. “It was a great family place to be.”

She was born Oct. 21, 1931, to Anna and Charles Dybala, and grew up on Belmont Avenue in a Polish-American neighborhood of central Toledo. She was a graduate of the former Harriet Whitney Vocational High School, where she studied cosmetology. Afterward, she was a hairdresser for several years.

Surviving are her husband, Ray Brint, whom she married May 22, 1957; daughters, Karen Allison, Rebecca Ticker, Nan Vantrease, and Colleen Wittenmyer; sons, Alan and Raymond Brint; 14 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Walker Funeral Home, where services will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The family suggests tributes to the northwest Ohio chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com, or 419-724-6182.