Clarence, left, and Ervin Pierstorf amassed a fortune serving the prescription drug and photo development needs of customers in Fairview Park and other western suburbs. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

By Michael K. McIntyre, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Pierstorf brothers were little men who became big successes in Fairview Park, running a family pharmacy and a profitable film processing business that filled photo albums all over the West Shore with enduring memories.

Ervin, the taller one at 5’3”, lived to be 100. He died in 2016.

Clarence died comparatively young -- in his 80s, in 1993.

Clarence never married and Erv waited until he was 50 to tie the knot with his high school sweetheart, Florence.

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Pierstorf's was a mainstay for decades in Fairview Park. It closed in 1993. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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Erv Pierstorf said he loved being a pharmacist because customers trusted them more than doctors, and they were cheaper. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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Erv and Clarence’s father, Herman, who owned a pharmacy in West Park where the boys worked as kids, died young -- in his 40s.

They promised their mother, Mayme, that helping her with the new store, Pierstorf Pharmacy on Lorain Avenue in Fairview Park, would be their only priority. The story goes that they promised her they wouldn’t marry.

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Ervin Pierstorf married his longtime sweetheart Florence after Ervin's mother died. His brother Clarence is beside him. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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The brothers at their father's original pharmacy in Cleveland. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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Even more successful was the photo developing business they started in the basement of their pharmacy. Fairview Photo Service became the regional developer of Kodak film long before digital photos were a thing. At one time they had more than 200 trucks that picked up undeveloped rolls from establishments all over town, then dropped off finished prints.

They also founded a savings and loan.

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The basement of the Pierstorf Pharmacy became a regional hub for film developing. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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The brothers invested heavily in state-of-the-art film developing equipment and it paid off. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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Their businesses became so successful that when their mother needed to go to a nursing home, they built one in Westlake. She got the best room at Oakridge Home.

They sold the pharmacy in 1975. It closed in 1993.

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The brothers built a nursing home when their mom needed one, but Ervin, who lived to be 100, lived at home his whole life. "Nursing homes are great for people that need nursing homes, but I decided I didn’t need to live in one." -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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The brothers amassed great wealth, but you wouldn’t know it by their modest trappings. They gave back, though, with an annual holiday party at the Fairview Theater with a movie, a variety show, Santa and a present for any child who came. Erv bought a newfangled movie projector and used to have movie nights at Fairview High School’s football stadium.

At Pierstorf’s Pharmacy, Erv and Clarence began loaning young employees money for college. And when Clarence died in 1993, $5 million of his estate was used to create the Pierstorf Memorial Fund, a scholarship fund that offers no-interest college loans for students from Lutheran churches.

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The brothers remained close throughout their lives. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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The money actually seeds two loan funds, one for undergraduate no-interest loans for Lutheran students in the Cleveland area, and another offering no-interest, need-based loans to pharmacy students at Ohio Northern University, home of the Pierstorf Family Pharmacy Museum, which is housed in the Pierstorf Annex building.

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The Pierstorf's were big supporters of the pharmacy program at their adopted school, Ohio Northern University. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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When the fund began in 1993, the undergraduate loans were targeted at those who attended Messiah Lutheran Church in Fairview, where the Pierstorfs worshipped. Over the years, as the fund’s investment earnings grew and students paid back principal, the territory for eligible students grew to where it stands today, every active Lutheran student in seven Northeast Ohio counties.

Here’s how it works: Students apply for assistance, get an endorsement from their Lutheran church pastor, and are considered by the committee based at Messiah. The loans come at no interest, up to $3,000 per year for four years, and must be paid off five years after graduation.

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The Pierstorf Memorial Fund is run by a committee at Messiah Lutheran Church.

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Until his final years, Erv met every student, shook their hands, signed them up and gave them life advice along with the check.

“Instead of just giving it to a charity and having no idea what’s going to happen, we came up with this plan, and it’s been working very well,” he said to loan recipients in 2013, when he was 97. “You can’t take it with you, nobody’s ever left this world taking money with them.”

He laid down faith-filled wisdom they weren’t likely to get in a college seminar.

“Life is good, God is good, take what he gives you,” Erv told them. “You’ve got to help him along once in a while. But if you get off the track, well, he’ll get you back on.”

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Erv Pierstorf next to the Pierstorf Annex at Ohio Northern University. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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When Erv died in 2016, he took what God and hard work gave him, and what the stock market burnished, and left a fortune to the fund -- $17 million. After 25 years of loans to undergraduate and pharmacy students, the fund stands now at $22 million, with an equal disbursement each year to both loan programs.

“Nobody knew. He was very private about (his wealth),” said Karen Blackburn, who sits on the scholarship committee, having replaced her father, who was on the original committee and died in 2002. “He was very modest. He probably had one suit and the same car he drove forever.”

Indeed, said Martin Uhle, the fund’s executive director, Erv lived frugally in the same modest home just over the Fairview Park border in Rocky River most of his life. When he died, the bank called to invite Uhle, as administrator of Northeast-Ohio based fund, to take any possessions of value. There really weren’t any, he said, save for a new bed and a Macintosh computer Erv bought so he could read The Plain Dealer when the paper stopped being delivered daily.

“We loaned out $330,000 in 2012 when I started, now it’s over $700,000 annually,” Uhle said. “We think we can help kids with a million dollars in loans by 2020.”

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When they removed their white work coats, the brothers could be dapper double-breasted businessmen. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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The operative word being “loans.”

“Erv wanted them to know that by them paying it back, they would help the next in line. It’s not a handout,” said Blackburn. “That’s why he didn’t want the loan to be too significant. If it was too large, they’d have trouble paying back. We wanted it to be enough. It’s the perfect amount for the students to take responsibility for their college.”

They take the responsibility very seriously.

“That’s the incredible thing. Everyone pays us back,” said Uhle, a retired banking and finance executive who also now serves as superintendent of Lutheran West and Lutheran East high schools. “Erv used to personally hand out the checks and he would tell the kids, ‘Respect your parents, do well in school, and pay us back!’ And I’ve got just seven delinquent loans out of 600 that I’m collecting on.”

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Nathan Kelley. -- Spooner Inc.

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Nathan Kenney paid back his loan long ago. The chief operating officer of Spooner, Inc. said the Pierstorf money was crucial in covering his tuition at Kent State University, where he earned his bachelor’s in 1997.

“I certainly didn’t have a college fund to lean on, and my parents were not in a position to just be able to write a check for tuition,” he said. “There was a lot of relief in being able to receive interest free loans and know that when you began paying off those loans after graduation – you would be paying for what was received.”

The loans don’t come with credit checks, GPA requirements, needs assessments or any of the usual loan-officer paperwork. Just an endorsement from the pastor and a promise to pay back.

“I didn’t achieve anything special in my high school years that would make me worthy of being granted a scholarship from the Pierstorf Memorial Fund,” said Kenney. “But their vision mirrors God’s grace in this world. Not the top ten in your class? Doesn’t matter – scholarship granted. Unclear about your future or what you want to end up doing in life? No problem – scholarship granted.”

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A young Ervin Pierstorf. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund

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Erv Pierstorf hoped those students would learn not only the meaning of paying back, but paying forward.

“All I ask is that you use it to the best of your ability and as you get through with your schooling, and if you can help somebody else, pass it on,” he told them in 2013. “Whatever things you can do to make life better for just one person.”

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Owning a film development company meant an annual photo holiday card for customers and friends. -- Pierstorf Memorial Fund