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Ben Z. Grenald (formerly Greenwald) Family papers

 Collection
Identifier: 2021_085-UA

Ben Grenald, member of the Louisville Jewish Greenwald family, spent most of his childhood and youth in Louisville. His family papers consist of photos, correspondence, clippings, public school documents, Louisville College of Pharmacy 1942 commencement items, and materials related to his family’s automobile sales and supply business. There is also an unedited transcript of a 2000 oral history interview with Ben by the Jewish Museum of Florida that includes recollections of Grenald’s Louisville years.

Dates

  • circa 1928-2000

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is processed and available to researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has been transferred to the University of Louisville Archives and Records Center; please consult a reference archivist for more information.

Extent

.25 linear feet (half mss box)

Biographical / Historical

Ben Z. Grenald, a member of Louisville’s Jewish Greenwald family, was born in 1920 and spent most of his childhood and youth in Louisville, where he attended George D. Prentice Elementary, Louisville Junior High, and Louisville Male High School his participation in R.O.T.C. is documented. In 1942. Grenald was graduated from the Louisville School of Pharmacy followed by service in WWII and marriage to Selma Minden of Miami Beach, Florida where the pair lived until her death in 2018 and his death in 2020 at age 100. In Miami Beach, Grenald operated a popular pharmacy, invented over-the-counter skin products, and was involved in civic affairs, including service as a City of Miami Beach Commissioner. The Grenald Papers mostly shed light on Ben’s Louisville years—including as a teen on Brook Street in the Toonerville neighborhood—and consist of correspondence, clippings, public school documents, Pharmacy School commencement items, and materials related to his family’s auto sales and supply businesses. The photos are of friends and extended family, Ben’s cars, school groups, and area stores including two images taken during the 1937 Flood. A few items document activities of a local chapter of a Jewish teen fraternity and a group banquet photo possibly of a Jewish organization. A large number of the items in the collection appear to have been removed from a scrapbook.

Title
Ben Z. Grenald (formerly Greenwald) Family papers
Status
Completed
Author
Tom Owen
Date
2021
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Ekstrom Library, Lower Level Room 17
Louisville KY 40292
502 852-6752