Joseph H. von Paris Sr., a retired moving and storage company executive whose career with the family-owned B. Von Paris & Sons and its successor company, Von Paris Enterprises, spanned more than four decades, died Friday at Heartlands Senior Living Community in Ellicott City.
He was 92.
"I worked for him for many years and was his assistant terminal manager at Erdman Avenue," said Arthur G. "Art" Feeney, a nephew, who retired as president of Von Paris Enterprises in 2005.
"He was well liked by all of his employees and had a great relationship with them no matter what their job," said Mr. Feeney, of Millsboro, Del. "His door was always open. He wasn't just a boss, he was a friend."
The son of Bonaventure von Paris, president of what was then B. Von Paris & Sons, and Teresa Anton von Paris, Joseph Herman von Paris was born at his parents' home in the 400 block of S. Highland Ave. in Highlandtown. He was the seventh of nine children.
Mr. von Paris was raised in Highlandtown and at the family's country home in Woodlawn. While attending Mount St. Joseph High school in Irvington, he played center on the school's football team.
After graduating in 1940, he joined B. Von Paris & Sons, which had been founded by his grandfather, Eligius von Paris, in 1892, in Highlandtown, with a single horse and wagon.
"Upon graduating, he entered the family business full time, known in those days as 'The Highland Storage Co.,'" said a son, Michael Arthur "Mike" von Paris of Ellicott City, who is president of Von Paris Records Management Systems Inc. "He was always involved in the business, as a youngster learning from the ground up from his father and older siblings."
"When he was old enough he got what was then referred to as a chauffeur's license and handled countless local moves as well as taking shipments out of state," said a son, Eric Charles von Paris of Ellicott City, who is treasurer of Von Paris Moving & Storage.
After being inducted into the Army in 1942, Mr. von Paris was sent to Bloomington, Ill., to study mechanics, and was deployed to Australia. He later participated in the New Guinea campaign.
"He served in the 377th Quartermaster Trucking Company, where he utilized his skills, learned both from his days on the moving business as well as from his mechanical training in Illinois," said Michael Arthur von Paris.
He had attained the rank of technical sergeant by war's end, when he returned to Baltimore and rejoined the family business, which his father, who had been sole proprietor, incorporated as B. Von Paris and Sons Inc.
Mr. von Paris rose to become president of Von Paris Storage Warehouses Inc., a subsidiary company, and then was named terminal manager at the company's Erdman Avenue location.
After the terminal moved to Timonium, Mr. von Paris assumed the duties of fleet manager. When Von Paris Enterprises was established as the parent company of all the subsidiaries, he was elected to the board, on which he served until a few years ago.
As fleet manager, Mr. von Paris used the mechanical expertise that he had learned in the military to keep the moving company's vans on the road.
"In the old days, diesel trucks were cranky and trouble to start, so that's how he started his day," said Eric C. von Paris.
"My remembrances as a young fellow working with him the late 1950s, was him working on the trucks, which in those days were at Bank Street and Highland Avenue," recalled Mr. Feeney. "As our terminal manager, he was responsible for all the equipment and fleet maintenance."
No job was too big, small or dirty for Mr. von Paris to handle.
"He'd be on a creeper underneath trucks greasing them," said Michael A. von Paris.
"He was very organized and a great list maker. That was his daily agenda," said Eric C. von Paris, who added that his father had a large block calendar on the wall on which he made daily entries, which in effect functioned as a daily diary.
The elder Mr. von Paris retired in 1987 and continued to be an "unofficial adviser" to the company, family members said.
"He taught the next generation that worked for the company the right way to do things. He was a good teacher to his nieces and nephews who worked for the company," said Mr. Feeney.
The company moved its warehouse and headquarters to Savage in the 1990s.
At the company's Monday board meeting, Mr. von Paris' surviving brother, Eligius "Lee" von Paris of Cockeysville, who is chairman of the board of Von Paris Enterprises Inc., said, "Through his efforts and guidance, he helped the company grow from a mom-and-pop operation into one of the largest moving and storage companies in Maryland."
Before moving to the Ellicott City senior living community last year, Mr. von Paris lived for years in a home in the 2400 block of N. Rolling Road in Woodlawn.
He was a charter member of the Windsor Lions Club and was a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; he was active in the Charles Evering VFW Post in Rosedale.
An inveterate boater and traveler, he was a Civil War buff and liked visiting East Coast battlefields from the conflict.
He was a longtime communicant of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Woodlawn.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church, 600 S. Conkling St.
In addition to his two sons, brother and nephew, Mr. von Paris is survived by his wife of 67 years, the former Ann Elizabeth Arthur; two other sons, Joseph Herman von Paris Jr. of Reisterstown and David Bernard von Paris of Severna Park; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.