Robert M. Levine, the founder of the Fire & Ice mineral and jewelry retail shops who was an original 1980 Harborplace merchant, died of cancer Nov. 19 at his North Baltimore home. He was 74.
Born in Boston, he was the son of Henry Levine, a liquor wholesaler, and Esta Rittenberg Levine, who had a Roxbury dress shop. He was a graduate of Boston Latin High School and earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also attended Smith College and studied Russian literature and Slavic languages at Harvard University as a graduate student.
"He had an entrepreneurial spirit," said a friend, Elliot Savitz, who lives in Boston. "He worked through college as a cab driver. He also worked in a camera store and developed a lifelong interest in photography."
Mr. Levine established a home-based candle-making business more than 40 years ago and sold his wares to Boston-area shops and the old Filene's department store. He delivered his candles in a van he drove.
He soon developed an interest in jewelry after attending wholesale trade shows and observed that silver was becoming stylish in the 1970s. He soon began selling silver jewelry and later said that as a practical matter, a pound of silver took up far less space than a pound of wax in his delivery truck.
"He was a good businessman, and he saw the opportunity of silver, " said his grandson, Michael Milner of Baltimore. "He was a risk-taker, but his risks often turned out to his benefit."
He opened a jewelry store in Lexington, Mass., and began supplying other jewelers with stock and building business relationships with jewelry manufacturers.
"He was always on the phone with someone around the world," said his grandson. "He had a great eye and an appreciation for fine stones and minerals."
Mr. Levine formed a partnership with a Boston Faneuil Hall Market retail jeweler to open an outlet in Baltimore's new Harborplace. The shop, Harbor Silver & Gold, opened in July 1980. Mr. Levine later bought out the partner, moved to Baltimore and ran the business himself.
He expanded the shop — it was originally a small space in the Pratt Street Pavilion — and added new lines including fossils, minerals and art glass. His silver jewelry was often from Native American traders and small artists in New Mexico. He and his wife regularly visited the Southwest and made numerous hikes through Monument Valley.
"He had amazing taste," said his wife, Janet Sue "Jan" Robinson, whom he met as a customer at Harborplace. "He loved natural products. He sought out fine carvings and Native American pottery. He was always looking."
He and his wife renamed the business Fire & Ice in 1988. Now a chain, it has locations in Baltimore, Virginia, Philadelphia and Boston and has an e-commerce site. He has shops at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, Towson Town Center, White Marsh, Columbia and throughout Washington. He retained and expanded the Harborplace shop.
He and his wife hand-picked items on buying trips to Thailand, Nepal, Poland, Israel, Italy, Peru and Turkey, among other destinations.
Mr. Levine made a specialty of finding fossils, including amber with embedded insects and pieces of petrified wood. He had an aquatic dinosaur fossil for sale and sold numerous trilobites and fossilized fish. He also sold pieces of meteorites. He personally collected pieces of the moon, Mars and Venus.
After opening a shop in Georgetown Park in Washington, he received a call from employees telling him that one Christmas Eve, then-President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea visited the store and bought gifts. The store became a favorite shopping destination of Chelsea Clinton.
Among the store's other celebrity customers were Gene Hackman, Eddie Murphy, Cicely Tyson and Alan Dershowitz.
Mr. Levine was recalled for his sense of humor and practical jokes.
In addition to his trips to the Southwest, he was a Red Sea, South Pacific and Caribbean scuba diver. He belonged to a cooking club, the Cork and Fork, and often made rockfish and Chilean sea bass dishes for family and friends. He attended the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and enjoyed jazz, ballet, rock, opera and new age. He liked Broadway musicals and plays.
"In a crowded elevator, he always cracked a joke," said his grandson. "He could make people smile. It was the way he did business."
In addition to his wife of 34 years, survivors include a son, Russell Levine of Virginia Beach, Va.; two daughters, Heidi Levine, a news photographer based in the Middle East, and Cherie Peters of Boston; a brother, Paul Levine of West Palm Beach, Fla.; and seven grandchildren.
Services were private.
