Unknown Etkin

Was said to be a big scholar (תלמיד חכם), who received Smicha at the age of 26 and knew all of the Shas. He was never a Rabbi, and instead ran a business (lumber yard?) with his wife.

Sitting, learning, at the same table for 50 years, he scratched a hole in it, with the pencil or stick he always held.

Likely took in his orphaned nephews Nachum and Shabtai.