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Jewelry Industry Veteran Albert Solomon Dies at 86
He opened his first store in the 1950s and thereafter dedicated his entire life to jewelry.
Longtime retailer Albert Solomon, pictured here with his wife Beverly, died last week at the age of 86. Solomon opened his first jewelry store in the 1950s. He went on to run the jewelry departments at TSS Seedman’s stores and found the location for what became Solomons Jewelers.
New York--Albert Solomon, a longtime retailer known for his honesty and dedication to the jewelry industry, died last week at the age of 86.
Solomon opened his first jewelry store in the 1950s in the town of Huntington, N.Y. along with his two best friends, a venture that marked the start of a decades-long career in jewelry.
In the early 1960s, the trio started another store called the Long Island Diamond Exchange, located in front of Roosevelt Field mall, which opened in 1956.
“My father ran the business,” said his son, Marc Solomon. “My father really did everything; he did all the hiring and the buying of the jewelry.”
Later, Solomon headed the jewelry departments of Times Square Stores, also known as TSS Seedman’s, a chain of department stores in the New York area that operated until 1989.
In the late 1970s, he helped his then 19-year-old son Marc find the space that would become the family jewelry store, Solomons Jewelers, which now has been in business for 40 years and has two locations, in Plainview and Albertson, New York.
Marc Solomon said his father continued to come into the family-owned and -operated stores a couple times a week, right up until he passed away.
“He was just the most amazing human being,” he said. “His love for the jewelry industry was second to none.”
Albert Solomon also was a certified appraiser and senior charter member of the National Association of Jewelry Appraisers, a former president of the Jewelers of America board of directors and of the New York State Jewelers Association, and completed the diamond course at the GIA.
He was inducted into the National Jeweler Retailer Hall of Fame in 1999, alongside Stanley Pollack and Ralph Destino.
Outside of the jewelry industry, he loved cars and traveling, and was among the families who founded the Plainview Jewish Center on Floral Drive in Plainview, New York.
Solomon is survived by his wife of 62 years Beverly “Boshie” Solomon; sons Marc (Deborah) and Robert (Lisa); daughter Stacey (Marc Sachs); and grandchildren Jordan (Sydney), Eric, Ian (Breanne), Jesse, Samantha and Dylan.
Services took place Friday in Woodbury, N.Y.
In lieu of flowers, the family
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