Head of Newark Firm, Who Also Led Cutlery Concern, Dies–Lecturer on Gems
Special to The New York Times.
NEWARK, Sept. 11–Jerome B. Wiss, chairman of the board of Wiss Sons, Inc., jewelers, and board chairman and executive vice president of the J. Wiss and Sons Company, cutlery manufacturers, both of this city, died yesterday at his home in South Laguna, Calif. He was 64 years old.
Mr. Wiss, who had been semiretired in recent years, moved to South Laguna from Orange, N. J., six years ago. He had served for thirty-three years until 1955 as president of Wiss Sons, Inc., an outgrowth of the original J. Wiss and Sons Company, founded by his grandfather, Jacob Wiss, in 1848.
He was a registered jeweler with the American Gem Society. He lectured on precious stones, had an extensive collection of colored diamonds and possessed all but four of the known varieties of gems.
Mr. Wiss was former president of the Broad Street Association of Newark, former chairman of the Retail Trade Council of Newark, a deputy director of the Newark office of the Emergency Relief Administration in the Nineteen Thirties and a former member of the Essex County Right-of-Way Commission.
He was graduated in 1917 from Princeton University, where he was captain of the wrestling team and an intercollegiate gymnastics champion. During World War I he served as a lieutenant and flying instructor in the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps in France and Italy.
Mr. Wiss was Assemblyman from Essex County in 1941, and the next year was called to duty in the Army Air Force, in which he served as a captain ind an intelligence officer in New Guinea.
He was a member of the Essex County and Baltusrol Country Clubs, the Essex and Downtown Clubs in Newark and the Newark Athletic Club. Mr. Wiss and his first wife, Mrs. Grace Valentine Wiss, were divorced in 1945. He married the former Margaret Mullen the same year.
Surviving, in addition to his widow, are five daughters. Mrs. Nancy Drury, Mrs. Cornelia Degerberg, Mrs. Jeremy Smith, Mrs. Grace Gomez and Miss Jean Wiss; a sister, Mrs. Margarethe Sinon, and fifteen grandchildren.
WISS-Jerome B., on Sept. 10, 1960. of South Laguna, Calif., formerly of South Orange N.J ., husband of Margaret Mullen Wiss, father of Miss Jean Wiss, Mrs. Nancy Drury, Mrs. Cornelia Degerberg, Mrs. Jeremy Smith and Mrs. Grace Gomez. Service at The Colonial Home, 132 South Harrison St., East Orange. Thursday afternoon, Sept. 15 at 3 o'clock. In lieu of flowers contributions to The American Cancer Society would be appreciated.