Ernest OSTREICHER

OSTREICHER, Ernest passed away on October 12th, 2013. He was born April 10th, 1925 in Sighet, Romania. He is preceded in death by his parents and younger sister in the Holocaust. He is also preceded in death by his brothers-in-law Jack Wolf and Eugene Krauss. He is survived by his devoted wife of 63 years, Evelyn, daughters, Helen Halcomb, Isabelle Bernal (Robert), Sharon Ostreicher, grandson Aidan Bernal, sisters Shari Krauss and Gita Meryl (Moshe), numerous nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews and cousins. Ernest came to this country via Sweden after World War II as a jeweler. He met his wife and started his family in Lorain, Ohio where he established his profession, learned diamond setting and then opened his own jewelry store, Stricker's Jewelry. There he met his future partner. He went into the discount business opening Ontario Stores in Springfield and Dayton, Ohio where he moved his family. After he left that business, he opened Omart Inc. discount stores in Sidney, Belfontaine and Urbana, Ohio. When the changes of the discount dynamics happened, he established Drug Mart, a deep discount pharmacy chain in Dayton, Ohio. After selling his Drug Mart chain, he moved to Sun City Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. There he was able to indulge his passions for golf, skiing and playing poker as his full time retirement activities. He lived there healthy and happy for seventeen years. After successfully battling his first occurrence of cancer, Ernie and his wife Evelyn moved to Walnut Creek, California near two of their daughters. Ernie loved his life and thoroughly enjoyed sharing with children in schools his experiences living first-hand through the Holocaust. He received tremendous satisfaction knowing that he helped educate people about a horrible time in modern life so that it would never happen again. Ernie considered the United States as the greatest country in the world only matched by his love for the State of Israel. He communicated this great love by having a tattoo of both flags put above his number from Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Services will be held at Gan Shalom Cemetery, 1100 Bear Creek Road in Martinez, California on Tuesday October 15, 2013 at noon. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Holocaust Memorial Fund of your choice. Evelyn will be sitting Shiva at Atria Montego Heights, Walnut Creek, California. His daughter, Helen Halcomb, will return to Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday, October 15, 2013 to continue sitting Shiva.

Published in Dayton Daily News on Oct. 15, 2013