CHARLES B. DEGENSTEIN – Executive of Weis Markets
Charles B. Degenstein, 92, business and civic leader, humanitarian and philanthropist, died at 7:45 a. m., Wednesday, November 11, 1998, at his home in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
He was born March 18, 1906, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, a son of the late David Degenstein and Bertha [Beckman] Degenstein. Mr. Degenstein’s family moved in 1906 from Atlantic City to Philadelphia, where his father established D. Degenstein & Company, a ladies’ coat and suit manufacturing company.
Mr. Degenstein married the former Claire Elizabeth ”Betty” Weis, who died February 25, 1978. On January 3, 1980, he married the former Lore A. (Tromsdorf) Stock. Mr. Degenstein was a graduate of the Charles Morris Price School of Advertising and Temple University, both of Philadelphia. He began his career at Stern and Company, Philadelphia, with a brief stint at Progress Manufacturing Company in New York City.
During his Philadelphia days, he met Claire Elizabeth Weis and her father, Sigmund Weis, both of whom cast an important influence upon Mr. Degenstein’s life. Following his marriage to Betty Weis, he moved to Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he was an executive at Weis Pure Food Stores, later called Weis Markets, Inc. He continued in that company’s work as it grew to a most successful chain of supermarkets now [1998] serving a six-state area.
Mr. Degenstein was a member of the Sunbury Rotary Club since 1950 and was past president; president of Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Sunbury Industrial Drive; member of the board of the Sunbury Youth and Community Center during the construction of the pool and skating rink; director of the YMCA; member and past president of the Susquehanna Valley Country Club; served on the Susquehanna University Board of Directors and was an honorary member of the Susquehanna University Board of Directors at the time of his death; and was recently named an honorary life member of the Americus Hose Company, Sunbury. He was a member of B’Nai Zion Temple. He was chief benefactor of the Degenstein Foundations, which have benefited Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley since the 1970s. He was chief benefactor of the Lore Degenstein Gallery at Susquehanna University through an endowment made by him in honor of his wife. He was also chief benefactor of the Degenstein Scholars Program which benefits students in the university’s Sigmund Weis School of Business.
In addition to his wife, surviving are three stepsons, Marlin Stock of Orwigsburg, Steven Stock of Selinsgrove and Charles Stock of Santa Barbara, California, one stepdaughter, Nancy [Stock] Hunsinger of Danville; three step-grandchildren; one brother and sister-in-law, Lester Degenstein and Lila Degenstein of New York, New York; sister-in-law, Janet C. Weis; four nieces, Susan Mindel, Nancy Wender, Ellen Goldstein and Jane Zweifler; and two nephews, Walter Zweifler and Lee Degenstein. He was preceded in death by one sister, Anita Zweifler, and one brother-in-law, Sigfried Weis. The funeral was on Friday, November 13, at the Degenstein Center Theater at the Charles B. Degenstein Campus Center, Susquehanna University. Burial was in B’nai Zion Cemetery, Danville. Arrangements were by the V. L. Seebold Funeral Home, Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
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Obituary from a paid notice that appeared in the New York Times, November 15, 1998. Portrait from the Charles B. Degenstein Foundation.
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