Retailer Hall of Fame 2024: Ronald Leitzel and Tonia Leitzel Ulsh

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the print edition of the 2024 Retailer Hall of Fame. Click here to see the full issue.

From a general store to a jewelry store, members of the Leitzel family have always been entrepreneurial.

Today, that tradition continues. Ronald (Ron) Leitzel and Tonia Leitzel Ulsh are the co-owners of Mountz Jewelers, an independent jeweler with three stores in Central Pennsylvania.

They are the first brother-sister team inducted into National Jeweler’s Retailer Hall of Fame.

Ron, a certified watchmaker who handles the books and big-picture decisions, and Tonia, a GIA graduate gemologist (G.G.) and AGS certified gemologist appraiser who loves being on the salesfloor, balance each other out to power a family jewelry business that dominates their ZIP codes, all while never forgetting to give back.

Each year, Mountz Jewelers donates to more than 100 charitable organizations, from its current “45 Years of Mountz Moments” giveaway to their regular donations to local food banks and children’s hospitals.

To step foot in one of their three stores is to become family, whether you’re an employee, a customer, or a Leitzel.

From Leitzel’s to Mountz
Mountz Jewelers has been celebrating the good times in life with fine jewelry for 45 years, with locations in Carlisle, Camp Hill, and Colonial Park/Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the Leitzel family’s history of owning and operating businesses goes back five generations.

Ron and Tonia’s great-great-grandmother, Kathleen Schadel, sparked the family’s entrepreneurial spirit, opening Schadel’s General Merchandise Store in the still-rural area of Klingerstown, Pennsylvania.

But it was Ron and Tonia’s uncle, Charles Leitzel Jr., who brought their father Marvin Leitzel and the family into the fine jewelry industry in 1949. It was a different world for the brothers, who had grown up on a cattle farm.

Ron spent his teenage years working with his father at Leitzel’s Jewelry and Gifts.

Back then, it wasn’t just a jewelry store, selling items like lamps and luggage alongside engagement rings and watches.

“I was working in the back as a young teenager,” Ron recalls. “I still have my first pay stub from age 16; it was $2.65. That was how much I got paid that week.”

After high school, Ron attended Bowman Technical School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to become a certified watchmaker.

In 1970, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and transferred to the National Guard, serving for six years.

By 1967, Marvin had bought the family business from his brother Charles and asked Ron if he was interested in joining him. Ron agreed.

Meanwhile, Tonia, the younger sibling by 18 years, found herself working for the family business practically from the moment she was born.

“I grew up making bows in our living room, tagging jewelry at our kitchen counter,” Tonia says.

As jewelers in a small community in Central Pennsylvania, the Leitzel family knew the Mountz family.

So it wasn’t a surprise that when Vaughn and Jackie Mountz were ready to sell their business, they offered Mountz Jewelers to the Leitzels, as the couple had no children to take over their family business.

“My dad and I were working at the Leitzel store building shelves on Labor Day [in 1979],” Ron recalls. “He told me that Vaughn called him that day and I was beside myself.

“Mom and dad owned the store by Oct. 1, about 30 days later. That’s when I went to work at Mountz Jewelers as the manager.”

The Leitzel family put everything on the line to purchase Mountz Jewelers, offering up the family’s house and business as collateral for the loan.

“Somehow I got the responsibility of paying the bill for the loan,” jokes Ron.

By the mid-1980s, Ron had bought out his parents and was the sole owner of Mountz Jewelers.

He never changed the name because the Mountz family had a good reputation in the small town of Carlisle, and Ron isn’t the type of person who needs to see his name in big letters on the front of a building.

Once Ron opened a second Mountz Jewelers store in Camp Hill and a third in Colonial Park/Harrisburg, the decision to keep the name was solidified. He thought, why change it now?

During all this, Tonia was growing up and still working with the family at Leitzel’s Jewelry and Gifts and then Mountz Jewelers.

When it came time to go to college, she majored in business and marketing, and planned on becoming an attorney, but she changed course when she saw the growth her brother created with the expansion of Mountz Jewelers.

The timing was perfect, explains Tonia. She had looked into attending the Gemological Institute of America to earn her G.G. diploma before, but there was always a waiting list to enroll.

Luckily, GIA had just begun offering its one and only course of night classes, giving Tonia the opportunity to become a G.G.

“I was 20 years old. I finished [my second] semester [of college], moved to Santa Monica, and went to GIA,” Tonia says.

Once she graduated, she started as a sales associate and appraiser for her brother at Mountz Jewelers, climbing her way up the ranks until 1999 when she became co-owner of the business.

“It was very good for me that my father knew my commitment level at that point, so that when he passed, he knew that I also wanted to be part of the business that he had started,” Tonia says.

“At the time my husband also worked in the business, and it was the year our first child was born. So, there were a lot of changes happening at that time.”

Marvin died in 2002, three years later, at the age of 74.

“I considered him my partner until the day he died,” Ron says.

“He had the jolliest laugh,” adds Tonia. “It’s just a great memory to have, working with him and hearing him with that laugh.”

An Equal Partnership
Ron and Tonia are not a typical brother-sister duo.

Because of their 18-year age gap, they never lived together as siblings, so they did not have to navigate the sometimes complicated big brother-little sister dynamic in that way.

“Tonia was born and I got kicked out of the house so she’d have a bedroom, that’s what I tell everybody,” jokes Ron. 

They got to know each other later in life by working together, with Ron acting as Tonia’s mentor.

“When you learn from somebody, it’s not one of those situations where you’re pushing and pulling, it was more of a growth for me,” Tonia says.

Friends in the industry attribute their balance as co-owners to their mutual respect for each other.

Ron and Tonia have their own skill sets in the jewelry industry, that when combined, are what allows Mountz Jewelers to be successful. They see each other as business partners and equals.

Tonia is always on the salesfloor, moving among their three stores.

Ron, meanwhile, handles the finances and big-picture decisions for the business.

“It’s so nice to see a brother and sister team that work so closely together, that really harness each other’s strengths,” says Asaf Herskovitz, CEO of Philadelphia-based GN Diamond, a supplier to Mountz Jewelers.

“Our personalities are such that we definitely balance each other out,” says Tonia.

“Ron is the risk-taker, not me. Anybody who knows us will tell you that that’s where we are definitely opposites. He takes the risk, and I follow behind and make sure everything happens.”

Ron cites their separate upbringings and educational backgrounds as the reasons why they complement each other so well.

Together, they have grown their independent jewelry store to three standalone locations that bring leading jewelry brands like A. Jaffe, Lagos, and Rolex to smaller cities.

“When we see somebody wearing a designer that we carry, we know that it came from our store because there is not another place in our market where you can make that purchase,” Tonia says.

Treating Everyone Like Family
When Ron first hired Tonia out of college, he explained that he needed someone with her education and gemological skills because of the growth happening within the business.

There was no special treatment for Tonia at Mountz Jewelers because everyone is treated like family. For Tonia, this meant a little tough love from her big brother.

“She took every challenge I threw at her and more, and I know I was harder on her than I would’ve been on a regular employee because I didn’t want to show favoritism,” he says.

Because both Ron and Tonia grew up in the business, they were used to doing anything to help out at the store, down to sweeping the floors.

They both attribute their work ethic to their father, Marvin.

“You learn and follow in the footsteps of the people you’re around,” says Ron, who never forgot what his father taught him while he was manager.

“He showed me that whatever it takes to get the job done, you don’t think about being on the clock, you don’t think about a work schedule, you never ask an employee to do something you wouldn’t do or haven’t done yourself. You have to lead by example.”

With three locations, Ron and Tonia can’t be at all their stores at once.

They trust their employees and work to empower them by offering product knowledge and encouraging higher education.

Currently, they have four team members who have earned their G.G. diplomas from GIA.

“We tell our employees, when you’re having trouble trying to make a decision or helping a client, they should ask themselves, what would Ron or what would Tonia do?” says Ron, who’s even had coffee mugs made with the saying.

Their 48 employees are not only an extension of Ron and Tonia, “they’re an extension of our family,” says Tonia.

There is little turnover at the retailer, with many employees sticking around for decades.

Even vendors are part of their family, but they need to have the same passion for the business as Ron and Tonia in order to make it into a Mountz Jewelers showroom.

Every diamond that goes through the doors has been handpicked, and every line that their stores carry is a representation of themselves, Ron and Tonia say.

Many of the lines stocked by Mountz Jewelers also have philanthropic endeavors similar to the community involvement that is a core pillar of the retailer’s business.

One of these brands is Le Vian, which donates 10 percent of its pre-tax profits to charity. The brand also is involved in causes to support local communities and medical charities, along with building schools in towns where diamonds are mined.

“Philanthropy, community involvement, giving back—that’s part of our passion, that’s part of our culture here at Mountz Jewelers,” says Ron.

Every year, the business donates to over 100 charitable organizations, with a focus on how to help the people of Central Pennsylvania.

Ron and Tonia spotlight giving back to their community as one of the main tenets in their business because they want to support the people who support them.

“It’s such a strong part of our DNA. I mean, we live in the community where we work and we just want what’s best for everybody who lives here,” says Tonia.

They’ve helped their community in all kinds of ways, from giving away turkeys on Thanksgiving to donating to local schools, police K-9 units, and children’s hospitals.

When looking for what organization to support next, they start with healthcare, then move to quality of life, and those who are less fortunate.

But they don’t leave all the decision making up to the two of them.

Mountz Jewelers’ employees voted on the recipients for “Inspire 40,” the store’s 40th anniversary campaign in which a total of 40 individuals and organizations received hand-selected gifts.

To celebrate its 45th year in business, the retailer is donating $450 to 45 causes and raffling off a $4,500 shopping spree for its “45 Years of Mountz Moments” campaign.

This time, it’ll be members of the public who decide which charities receive donations, as Mountz is asking customers who enter the raffle for their suggestions.

“It makes you realize that what we do here is so tiny compared to other charities,” Ron says while reflecting on the impact of the “Inspire 40” campaign.

“We don’t do this for recognition. It’s because it’s the right thing to do and it’s in our hearts.”

Mountz Jewelers also has donated to the Lifeline helicopter pilots in Pennsylvania, a donation that was deeply personal. 

In 2007, Tonia’s family—her husband John Ulsh, daughter Katie Ulsh, and son James Ulsh—were involved in a serious car accident that left her husband with a 3 percent chance of surviving.

It was a Lifeline helicopter that carried her husband and her then 4-year-old son to the hospital that day.

As an appreciation for the pilots, Mountz Jewelers presented them with a check.

Along with making donations, Tonia often helps run philanthropic events in Central Pennsylvania.

“I find that I lean towards children in need because they can’t control their destiny at that point. When there are children who need food, that just tugs at my heartstrings,” says Tonia.

When asked how they balance expanding their business with so many charitable events throughout the year, Tonia explains that it’s all about prioritizing.

Supporting nonprofit organizations is a priority for Mountz Jewelers, so they always find time to make it happen. 

Ron and Tonia also make the effort to serve on multiple boards.

Tonia sits on the board of directors for The Salvation Army Harrisburg Capital City Region and volunteers for the local arm of the Midwest Food Bank, the United Way of Carlisle & Cumberland County, and the Saint Patrick School in Carlisle.

Both Ron and Tonia are members of the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society.

“It’s the consistent support they give to their community that, I believe, [makes] the people want to support their business in return,” says Herskovitz of GN Diamond.

Everyone is treated like family at Mountz Jewelers, giving their customers the motivation to support the Leitzel family business by returning whenever they have an occasion to celebrate.

“There are just so many different areas that need help and we’re not afraid to do that. We just hope other businesses also follow suit because it’s really important for quality of life in every community, supporting the people out there,” says Ron.

What’s Next
With three freestanding locations, Mountz Jewelers has done a lot of expanding since the Leitzel family began selling fine jewelry alongside lamps 75 years ago.

But who will take over once Ron and Tonia retire?

The Leitzels don’t like to push anyone in their family to become part of the business; Ron and Tonia were given the choice of working at the jewelry store or exploring other avenues, and they’ve opted to afford that same opportunity to their children.  

While Ron’s daughter, Amanda Bordner, never worked at Mountz Jewelers, Tonia’s now college-age son James has shown interest.

He will be a junior at Villanova University’s business school during the 2024-2025 school year and knows that if he chooses it, Mountz Jewelers will be there for him.

Tonia’s daughter Katie also may join the family business one day. 

She currently lives in Denver, Colorado, and works for a marketing company that does jewelry advertising. 

If she ever decides to move back to Pennsylvania, Mountz Jewelers will be an option for her too, says Tonia.

As for what the future holds for Mountz Jewelers, nothing is definite just yet.

Ron and Tonia are happy with their three locations, but say they’re always thinking about the future.

“My belief is, if you’re standing still, you may as well be thinking about going backwards,” says Ron.