Obituary: Frederick C.J. Wiss
Newark Sunday Call: October 11, 1931

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FREDERICK C. J. WISS, who died Friday, sent the name of Newark to every civilized part of the world, His father, Jacob Wiss, came here from Switzerland eight-three years ago and opened a modest shop at the corner of Bank street and Liberty court, now the northwest corner of the main building of the Prudential Insurance Company. He began to forge surgical instruments and a few pairs of shears. He worked slowly and with infinite care, and presently people began to say that his shears were the best they had ever used. Some of the first pairs are still in use after eighty years of service. The son, Frederick, who was born at the Bank street home, made and sold more than 2,000,000 pairs of these shears annually. He built a great business, a credit to his name and to Newark. Although the name was widely known and the family had lived here for more than four score years, Mr. Wiss was never in the spotlight. In his benefactions he was so unassuming that his family usually learned of his charity through someone else.