Abe "Honey" Donsky

Honey Donsky was a kind and compassionate man. He was extremely charitable, notably to Jewish-related causes. He made many trips to Israel and was extremely well-liked and respected throughouot the community for his philanthrophy. It was notable that his generosity was performed both quetly and often anonymously. He was maried to his wife, Margaret, for 57 years. His funeral was performed by Levy Funeral Directors; 701 Chetwood, Bellaire, Texas

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His Hebrew name is AVRAHAM (HUNIK-Yiddish) or (ELHANAN-Hebrew}, son of YAAKOV MOSHE and GITTEL, HAKOHEN.

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Occupation:

Founder & President

Houston Wholesale Jewelers - 1953

Houston Jewelry & Distributiong Co. - 1961

Executive Vice President Sterlign Jewelry & Distributing Co. 1961 - 1992

Was partner in:

Nathan's Jewelers - Odessa, Tx

Nathan's Jewelers - Paris, Tx

Nathan's Jewelers - Denison, Tx

Nathan's Jewelers - Big Spring, Tx

Kish Jewelers - Paris, Tx

Linn Brothers Jewelers - Denison, Tx

Robert's Jewelers - Paris, Tx

Robert's Jewelers - Denison, Tx

Edwin's Jewelers 116 South Chadbourne, San Angelo, TxPartner with Edwin Gleitman until 2-14-1953 when sold out entire interest.

Prior to 1941 was employed by Glazer's Wholesale Drug Co at Longview, Tx

In 1942 moved to San Angelo, Tx

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Awards:

Brotherhood Award - National Conference of Christains & Jews

David H. White Humanitarian Award

The State of Israel Peace Medal

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Board Member:

Brith Shalom & founding member

Beth Yeshurun

JCC

Jewish Federation of Houston

Hebrew Academy [The main building of the Hebrew Academy was named for him [old campus

7 Acres

AKIM

ADL

Jewish Family Service

Jewish National Fund

Jewish Institute of Medical Research

Donsky House

Israel Bonds

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The story of Houston Jewelry is also the story of the Donsky- Solomon family. A story in which is reflected the changing retail fabric of Texas. As with many merchant families, the tradition of retailing has been passed down from generations passed. Each generation had taken from the past and added its own innovations to the profession.

Jacob Donsky, a native of Russia, came to Dallas in 1880 from Pennsylvania, where he became a US citizen. In Dallas he met and married Gittle Shapiro. Abe "Honey" Donsky [b1912] was one of their ten children, and he started at the young age of four selling newspaper to help support the family. In the 1930's Abe's older brother Nathan Donsky went to San Angelo Tx. and opened a jewelry store Nathan's Jewelers. Abe Honey Donsky married Margaret Solinger of Tyler. Her father was Jacob Solinger a grocer in Tyler from Prussia/Poland who married Hannah Ephraim of Hempsted who's father Jacob Ephraim was a merchant in Hempstead who emigrated to Hempstead in the 1850's and served during the war in the Hempsted Light Dragoons. He married Nelli Rae Weltman of Witkova Germany.

Abe Honey Donsky was working with his good friend Nolan Glazer in Longview, Tx [his beer truck was held up one night by Bonny & Clyde] when Nathan became very ill and in 1941 Honey moved his family to San Angelo to take over the management of Nathan's Jewelers while Nathan recovered. During the war Nathan's expanded through out the Permian basin area with other brothers & sisters opening branches of Nathan's Jewelers. Honey & Nathan also opened stores under other trade names in order to keep out the Zales brothers. In 1948 the youngest brother Ervin decided to close the store in Paris, TX and return to Dallas where he & his wife Frances purchase Khun's Wholesale Jewelers. The name and concept were changed to Sterling Wholesale Jewelers and Texas's first catalog showroom opened in Dallas on Commerce St. In 1953 Honey saw the success of the new retail format & decided to leave San Angelo and moved his family to Houston where he met Dave & Ruth Rubin and together they formed Houston Wholesale Jewelers on February 18,1953 in a small upstairs shop at Main & Rusk above Baker's Shoes. Operations started April 1, 1953. Brothers Ervin & Nathan both invested in the new venture, which was modeled on the Successful Sterling Wholesale Jewelers. Together the two produced a joint catalog and bought together to reduce costs.

By 1955 the concept was so popular that brothers Ervin & Nathan Donsky along with brother on law Robert Slaton were bought out at a profit, as planned, and the business expanded and moved to the lobby of the Houston Club Bldg. In 1957 Dave Rubin passed of a sudden heart attack Honey exercised the survivors by out option in their partnership. Ruth Rubin remained as the primary jewelry buyer. She remained with the company until she retired in the late 1980's.

In 1961 Ervin Donsky wanted to expand and build a much larger second store. At the same time Zales & Gordon's successfully lobbied the legislature to change the law so that membership wholesale stores such as Houston Wholesale Jewelers & Sterling Wholesale Jewelers could no longer sell to the general public. So Sterling Jewelry & Distributing Company was formed. Ervin Donsky owned 60%, Nathan Donsky 30%, and Abe "Honey" Donsky 10%. In Houston, Houston Jewelry & Distributing Company was formed. Houston Wholesale Jewelers remained as a buying agent for the new company. By 1965 business had increased in Houston so much that larger facilities were needed and Abe "Honey" Donsky purchased the old Star Furniture Buildings at Milam & Rusk and had good friend architect Arnold Handler remodeled them into one building into which Houston Jewelry & Distributing moved in March of 1966. By 1972 it became obvious in which direction retailing in Houston was moving and Abe Honey Donsky purchased 5 acres of ranch land at Westheimer & Gessner to build a new second 80,000 sqf store. At this time the three brothers decided to merge the Houston & Dallas companies. The long-term plan was to bring the new company public but the market melt down which followed the oil embargo of 1973 & ensuing period of inflation killed that idea.

Through out the 1970's all four stores flourished [as well as Nathan's two remaining stores: San Angelo & Brownwood]. In Ervin Donsky decided to open a new large Sterling store in Richardson, TX. In 1983 Abe "Honey" Donsky was made on offer on the Milam & Rusk building at the peak of the real estate boom to which he could not refuse, and the building was sold [it has remained vacant to this day!] and the Houston Jewelry downtown store was moved to the First City Financial Center at Fannin & Clay in 1984. In 1986 the downtown Sterling Jewelry & Dist. store was closed and a new store was opened in Arlington Tx.

With the oil & real estate crash of 1986 and the decision of First City not to go ahead with development of three more office towers & to connect the Financial Center to the tunnel system, in 1991 it was decided to close the Fannin St store and to remodel the store on Westheimer. Architect Joel Brand supervised the remodeling. After a successful closing sale it was decided in Dallas to close the Arlington & Richardson stores. In early 1992 Nathan Donsky passed. Ownership in the combined company: Sterling Jewelry & Distributing Co, Inc. had now grown to 35 people, of three generations and from three branches of the family. Only about half of the people worked in the business. The Nathan Donsky branch of the family were not actively involved in the business and the Abe "Honey" Donsky branch wanted to transform the catalog showroom [by now an obsolete retail format] into a much smaller jewelry & fine gift specialty store format. So the family decided to liquidate Sterling Jewelry & Distributing Company Inc, distribute the assets to the shareholders and allow the separate family real estate partnerships to redevelop the now extremely valuable holdings.

In the fall of 1993, after 9 months of being closed, the new Houston Jewelry store opened 9521 Westheimer down the block from the old build which was being developed into a shopping center which now holds Border's Books & Joe's Golf. This latest store is the largest independent jewelry & fine gift specialty store in Houston. Houston Jewelry is the only former catalog showroom to successfully make this transition. In November 1993 Margaret Donsky passed, and in March of 1994 Abe "Honey" Donsky passed after a lengthy illness. In Dallas earlier that year, Ervin Donsky & his son Howard opened Sterling Diamonds & Fine gifts. In 1996 that business was sold to Barry Zale, Ervin Donsky retired and Howard Donsky became an award winning designer jewelry manufacture: Jeffrey Howard Inc. About this time the Nathan Donsky family decided to sell their stores to the Silverman Group, which eventually closed the stores. In 1997 http://www.HoustonJewelry.com was launched. In 1998 after seeing the success of http://www.Newwatch.com [now http://www.Ashford.com] founded by former jewelry buyer Sean McNamara, Houston Jewelry decided to try a narrow focus online merchandising and http://www.1WeddingBand.com was launched and it is now about 25% of the companies total volume.

The current Houston family are: Abe "Honey" & Margaret Donsky's daughter Dana, her husband Andrew L. Solomon and sons Rex and Keith Solomon. Keith Solomon is not active in the business and is a successful cinematographer in LA

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http://www.isjl.org/texas-san-angelo-encyclopedia.html

The Donsky family was one of the most successful of the new Jewish merchants. Nathan Donsky arrived in 1927 shortly after graduating high school in Dallas to operate concessions for the San Angelo Sheepherders, the city’s short lived semi professional baseball team. He left San Angelo after the team folded, but returned in 1930 and accepted a partnership with jeweler Leon Fine. After Donsky opened Nathan’s Jewelers in 1939, his operation expanded into several Texas towns with the help of his brother Abe “Honey” Donsky, who, according to legend, was once held up by Bonnie and Clyde. Nathan was widely known for his philanthropy in San Angelo, and served as a head of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce. He was elected the city’s citizen of the year in 1978.