Maurice Udes Interview (Part 1)

Nebraska Jewish Historical Society Author

03/31/2022 Added

31 Plays

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Interview with Maurice Udes of Omaha, Nebraska

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[00:00:23.720]Hello.
[00:00:24.590]I'm Maury Udes. I have lived in Omaha
[00:00:29.120]since I think 1949. I'd like
[00:00:33.500]to tell you a little bit about my family background.
[00:00:38.570]My dad's family came from Russia.
[00:00:41.630]My dad was born in Russia.
[00:00:44.510]He was about six months old when his parents left and came
[00:00:49.430]here and I'm happy to say they brought him with them.
[00:00:54.590]And I'm sorry to say,
[00:00:57.620]my father passed away a few years ago,
[00:01:01.040]but he was wonderful gentleman.
[00:01:03.290]And I really enjoyed him.
[00:01:07.310]On my mother side they came from Germany. My mother,
[00:01:11.840]my grandmother immigrated here when she was about 14.
[00:01:16.520]She came by herself.
[00:01:18.680]I don't know why. I never heard those details,
[00:01:22.610]but her family sent her to relatives in
[00:01:27.140]Arkansas,
[00:01:27.950]which is where I was born and raised and
[00:01:33.890]had a great boyhood down there. When were you born?
[00:01:38.510]November 23rd, 1921.
[00:01:43.710]Tell me a little bit about growing up in Arkansas. Well,
[00:01:48.840]I don't know that I ever grew up,
[00:01:51.220]but it was wonderful down there when I was young.
[00:01:54.240]I had a great boyhood had a lot of friends.
[00:01:58.050]A lot of them I'm still in contact with.
[00:02:02.530]Do you have a lot of memories for the house you lived in or the houses you lived
[00:02:05.950]in? Well, yes, but
[00:02:10.450]not really. Uh, I left there a long time ago
[00:02:16.630]and uh, I remember the houses I've lived in here in Omaha,
[00:02:22.870]probably more than those I lived in Arkansas.
[00:02:28.420]Anyway. I had a great boyhood there,
[00:02:30.500]had a lot of good friends and I've gone back for every class reunion
[00:02:36.160]we've ever had.
[00:02:40.630]Although I really enjoy Omaha
[00:02:45.910]I still have wonderful memories of my boyhood
[00:02:48.880]and my friends in Arkansas.
[00:02:53.260]Do you have any brothers or sisters? I have a younger sister,
[00:02:57.730]but she isn't doing very well.
[00:03:02.710]She's waiting for her replacement kidney
[00:03:07.780]and I don't know if she'll ever get it.
[00:03:11.080]She's about seven years younger than I am.
[00:03:15.430]And she just, she just isn't doing well.
[00:03:20.980]Where does she live?
[00:03:21.910]She lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.
[00:03:26.870]What kind of work did your father do while you were growing up?
[00:03:29.930]Well,
[00:03:32.750]the family had a wholesale grocery business and
[00:03:37.640]my uncle ran it and my dad worked for him.
[00:03:42.860]Family-owned wholesale grocery business. And,
[00:03:48.800]after prohibition was repealed,
[00:03:51.980]they started wholesaling liquor and beer,
[00:03:57.590]and then they put in their own bottling plant.
[00:04:00.590]They bottled their own wine and it was quite an
[00:04:05.150]enterprise they had.
[00:04:07.640]Did you work there
[00:04:08.630]growing up? Oh, I work there in the summer,
[00:04:11.330]just filling orders and trying to build some muscle.
[00:04:19.600]Did you go to high school in the same area? Yeah.
[00:04:23.650]we had a great high school and our high school all the years.
[00:04:28.510]I was there
[00:04:29.410]our high school had a great football team and that
[00:04:35.370]they had to win the state championship about every second year.
[00:04:40.300]And that's quite an accomplishment for a small town like that.
[00:04:44.530]And our better athletes,
[00:04:48.340]they didn't go to University of Arkansas,
[00:04:50.800]they went to Alabama and pretty soon everybody was calling us an
[00:04:55.420]Alabama farm team.
[00:05:03.040]When you graduated from high school Maury, did you go on to the university?
[00:05:07.210]Well, I went to Purdue I didn't go to University of Arkansas
[00:05:14.770]and math was my favorite subject, my best subject in high school.
[00:05:19.810]And I discussed it with my math teacher and he recommended that I go to
[00:05:24.310]Purdue and that's what I did. So I went to Purdue,
[00:05:29.440]graduated, went in the service
[00:05:34.270]as soon as I got out of high school, World War II.
[00:05:39.340]What kind of degree did you get from
[00:05:40.690]Purdue? A bachelor of science in electrical engineering.
[00:05:46.120]And right from Purdue, you went into the service? Yeah.
[00:05:50.270]Purdue had
[00:05:55.030]people out interviewing graduating seniors every year.
[00:06:00.230]They interviewed me and I thanked him for the interview.
[00:06:04.190]And I says I'm going into the service soon as I finish here,
[00:06:09.440]that's final. Well,
[00:06:12.800]nothing can be done to change it. I'm not trying to change it.
[00:06:18.050]But, when I come back, if I come back,
[00:06:22.760]I'd like to know that I could I contact your then?
[00:06:28.290]And I, if you have an opening, go to work for you.
[00:06:33.470]They said, we'd be happy if you would contact us.
[00:06:38.150]So I did. And I, I got out of the service.
[00:06:42.110]I worked for GE for short time. And then I went on to other things.
[00:06:48.800]What were some of the other things you did after that? Well,
[00:06:52.910]I went out and found a job where I could make more money
[00:06:58.610]where I thought I had entered the job would introduce me to
[00:07:03.410]better opportunities for advancement
[00:07:07.740]was a job with Lyon Metal Products.
[00:07:10.970]And Lyon was a manufacturer of products from light
[00:07:15.900]cages light cages of steel. And
[00:07:20.820]they had a wonderful line and
[00:07:27.200]it just had went real well for me. They were a great company to work for.
[00:07:32.510]Did you do a lot of traveling? Well,
[00:07:34.910]at first I traveled the state of Arkansas and then we had a
[00:07:39.590]sales meeting in Kansas City. And
[00:07:44.000]at that time I had worked, I hadn't been working as a salesman for two years,
[00:07:49.250]but,
[00:07:50.810]Arkansas was not the best place
[00:07:55.700]to sell the type products Lyon had.
[00:08:01.280]So we had a sales meeting and I approached the president of the
[00:08:05.720]company and I told him that.
[00:08:11.450]I said, well,
[00:08:12.050]I've been working in sales for you for two years now.
[00:08:18.140]I said,
[00:08:19.970]I wish you could give some consideration to giving me a better sales
[00:08:24.620]territory, more potential. He says, okay.
[00:08:29.480]And he turned and walked away. And I didn't know if he meant, uh,
[00:08:34.790]oh, okay I'll,
[00:08:36.800]I'll give you a better territory or if he meant, okay,
[00:08:40.280]the conversation's over. But,
[00:08:45.080]I was transferred to Chicago,
[00:08:48.540]had a wonderful opportunity there and from
[00:08:53.460]there I was transferred to Omaha and had a wonderful
[00:08:58.440]opportunity here. And
[00:09:04.620]so I'm just real happy with the way things went for a while,
[00:09:10.050]went for me with Lyon Metal Products.
[00:09:13.980]When you're with them for quite a number of years?
[00:09:16.890]Well, I was with them in Arkansas for two years.
[00:09:20.040]And I think I must have been with them here for four years.
[00:09:23.550]So it was probably close to six years and I worked for them.
[00:09:31.140]What was your next step then in life?
[00:09:33.510]Well, then I went into business for myself.
[00:09:40.080]Doing what?
[00:09:41.790]Well, I started a lumberyard.
[00:09:50.040]I jumped right out of what I had been learning and it was
[00:09:55.560]worked out well for me.
[00:09:59.350]How did you happen to get into a business like that Maury?
[00:10:03.490]Well, I was looking for a job and
[00:10:09.520]my, Lyon Metal, was advertising salesman.
[00:10:14.860]So I interviewed with,
[00:10:17.530]and I felt there was exactly what I was looking for.
[00:10:22.930]And he gave me a great opportunity to
[00:10:29.950]learn about
[00:10:31.600]get educated and a huge line of products at
[00:10:36.520]Lyon Manufacturing. And
[00:10:41.470]it was just a real natural.
[00:10:44.350]Then how did you happen to work yourself into the lumber business?
[00:10:48.490]Well,
[00:10:51.010]Lyon made a line of steel kitchen cabinets,
[00:10:56.140]and at that time,
[00:11:02.050]Youngstown was a big name and in steel kitchen
[00:11:06.970]cabinets and Lyon made a
[00:11:10.930]steel kitchen cabinet line too.
[00:11:15.910]And,
[00:11:18.580]both made a very superior line,
[00:11:23.310]but Lyon had a price advantage and
[00:11:29.250]you could go up against anybody and
[00:11:34.830]everything fell into place so easily. So
[00:11:40.920]I got acquainted with a lot of builders and it led me into the
[00:11:45.900]lumber business.
[00:11:49.930]And you branched out in the lumber business, doing everything,
[00:11:54.070]hardware, lumber and so on. Didn't ya?
[00:11:58.540]Well, I started manufacturing
[00:12:03.910]wooden kitchen cabinets.
[00:12:09.570]That was, that was a great thing.
[00:12:14.850]And then did you get into doors and windows? Yeah. Sure did.
[00:12:23.070]How many years were you in the lumber business?
[00:12:28.450]I'm not sure. I don't want to say eight or nine years.
[00:12:33.670]I went real well.
[00:12:37.510]A lot of hard work?
[00:12:39.460]A lot of good work.
[00:12:45.070]I'd like you to tell me a little bit about your time in the service.
[00:12:49.630]Okay. Well, I think I was in the service about four years.
[00:12:54.820]I think I was overseas a year, two and a half years,
[00:12:59.950]and I was in England,
[00:13:05.080]France, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia.
[00:13:11.560]I enjoyed every minute of it.
[00:13:17.560]I got a lot of beautiful training, wonderful education.
[00:13:24.010]And
[00:13:28.630]I came right out of college, right out of engineering school
[00:13:34.240]into the service. And I was field artillery man.
[00:13:46.150]In the field artillery, you use some math
[00:13:52.210]and after I had
[00:13:57.400]finished my artillery training,
[00:14:01.600]they took me on the sound and flash ranging where you can
[00:14:06.100]locate enemy artillery just by the sound of the
[00:14:10.750]enemy's gun firing.
[00:14:13.060]You could accurately locate his map coordinates.
[00:14:18.130]You can triangulate 'em
[00:14:21.850]and you could give his coordinates to our own artillery.
[00:14:27.220]They could fire one shell out there.
[00:14:29.920]We triangulate on where that shell detonated and
[00:14:34.770]give him another, another rating.
[00:14:37.480]And the next shell would be right on top of
[00:14:42.280]their artillery.
[00:14:47.140]There was a wonderful,
[00:14:49.360]and we had a lot of ammunition.
[00:14:53.990]The Germans were short of everything. They started
[00:14:57.890]the war with the
[00:15:03.110]greatest army, mechanized army, in the history of the
[00:15:07.940]world. As early as 1942,
[00:15:12.230]they were running out of everything.
[00:15:18.230]You went in as an enlisted
[00:15:19.670]man? Yes. I went in as an enlisted man,
[00:15:25.220]and then I went to OCS,
[00:15:26.780]I got a commission and I became a battery commander.
[00:15:31.910]And I came out as a captain.
[00:15:37.830]You enjoyed all your time in the service. I
[00:15:39.890]enjoyed every minute of it.
[00:15:43.170]It was great stuff. And it all worked.
[00:15:49.320]What outfits where you
[00:15:50.310]with? Well,
[00:15:57.600]it's been so long ago. It's been so long since I've thought about it.
[00:16:01.350]I'm having a little trouble recalling.
[00:16:07.200]I'm having trouble remembering the numbers.
[00:16:12.220]You were telling me earlier, Maury, about
[00:16:15.160]a trip you had made to the Gurs concentration camp.
[00:16:19.030]I'd like you to tell me that again.
[00:16:21.370]Well, I think I mentioned earlier,
[00:16:25.360]my grandmother was born in Germany
[00:16:30.810]and she immigrated here when she was about 14. Her
[00:16:35.550]family sent her to relatives in Arkansas.
[00:16:39.720]I don't know the story connected with that.
[00:16:43.650]I don't know why they sent her alone,
[00:16:47.760]but she came with no escort to relatives
[00:16:52.620]in Arkansas when she was 14 years old.
[00:17:03.430]What was your
[00:17:05.160]question? We were talking about the trip you made to Gurs. Oh yeah.
[00:17:07.950]Anyway,
[00:17:08.430]my grandmother's, my grandmother had a sister who did not
[00:17:13.350]immigrate
[00:17:15.660]and they were putting all the Jews in the concentration
[00:17:20.280]camps.
[00:17:21.630]So her sister was put in this camp in France,
[00:17:27.060]it's called camp De Gurs. And
[00:17:35.280]my grandmother did everything she could for her. Which of course
[00:17:39.420]was very limited.
[00:17:44.020]She sent her clothing. She sent her groceries. She sent her a little money,
[00:17:50.310]the amount of money you could send was limited.
[00:17:55.110]A little bit of American money
[00:18:00.120]would go a long ways in Germany at that time.
[00:18:05.280]So my grandmother continued to send her,
[00:18:10.230]her sister money. And my grandmother had her son
[00:18:17.070]get an attorney and they drew papers for the
[00:18:21.510]sister's emigration.
[00:18:24.360]And I don't think she ever got papers or when
[00:18:29.340]she did, it was too late. And
[00:18:34.830]her sister wrote that
[00:18:38.220]she had taken in this young girl,
[00:18:41.580]which to us meant that she had informally adopted her.
[00:18:46.050]And she said that if the papers
[00:18:48.960]didn't also cover this little girl,
[00:18:54.960]she said she wouldn't leave her behind.
[00:19:00.390]So I felt my grandmother's sister
[00:19:05.330]was one of the heroines of the Holocaust
[00:19:11.250]because she did stay behind
[00:19:15.540]with her step daughter. And they were both lost.
[00:19:25.830]Wasn't it at a later you tried to make the trip to Gurs camp?
[00:19:30.990]Yes, I did make the trip. Can you tell me about that? Well,
[00:19:39.600]I finished up the war
[00:19:46.890]as a prisoner of war in Germany.
[00:20:04.690]I told . . . already cleared that with, I told him,
[00:20:09.200]I told him that
[00:20:26.710]But you did make the trip to Gurs? You know, I've been,
[00:20:33.520]I've been a prisoner of war myself.
[00:20:36.640]And when I got out of a PW camp,
[00:20:45.590]I got a Jeep,
[00:20:51.230]told my commanding officer of my aunt,
[00:20:55.990]and I told him I wanted to go look.
[00:20:59.620]I was given permission to go and look for her.
[00:21:05.900]When I got to this camp De Gurs,
[00:21:07.960]where she had been the last time we heard from her and there
[00:21:12.880]were no inmates there and we heard they
[00:21:18.010]had all been sent to what I told you, the name of the camp.
[00:21:24.400]Auschwitz. They had all been sent to Auschwitz, for extermination.
[00:21:34.120]When did you come home from the service?
[00:21:37.480]Yeah, I think it was May of
[00:21:41.020]1944.
[00:21:47.360]And that's when you went to work for the metal company.
[00:21:50.270]Now I went to work for GE. And then after that,
[00:21:54.440]I went to work for Lyon Metal.
[00:21:58.400]And then that's what brought you to Omaha. Yeah.
[00:22:01.640]You have a lot of good memories about Omaha?
[00:22:04.220]Omaha. It's just been wonderful to me.
[00:22:07.880]You've enjoyed your years here?
[00:22:09.440]Have enjoyed my years and,
[00:22:12.530]and great opportunities here.
[00:22:15.380]And I'm real grateful for the opportunities that I've had here.
[00:22:21.920]Through a lot of hard work.
[00:22:23.660]Well, it
[00:22:28.010]it's fun work under the circumstances that I have.
[00:22:36.770]I'd like you to tell me a little bit about your dancing.
[00:22:39.920]Well, that's her hobby and
[00:22:46.370]I'm supposed to get a lot of exercise. I have to have exercise
[00:22:52.670]I'm a diabetic, that calls for exercise.
[00:22:57.080]And I get my exercise through my dance.
[00:23:00.860]My wife is a great dancer.
[00:23:07.790]She's one of the best female amateur dancers in the country.
[00:23:12.740]And then we have gone to a lot of dance competitions
[00:23:17.780]and we always do well. And we have a lot of fun.
[00:23:21.620]You travel around the country doing this?
[00:23:23.810]Yeah, we go to about six competitions a year.
[00:23:31.640]All over the country? Yeah.
[00:23:37.790]You've always enjoyed dancing. Have you?
[00:23:40.160]Yeah, I've enjoyed it for a long time.
[00:23:43.490]The Ohio Star Ball is the biggest competition.
[00:23:51.660]The last time we were there, I think they had 16,000
[00:23:57.710]entries.
[00:24:01.580]And you were among those 16,000. How did you do?
[00:24:06.860]Oh, I don't remember that.
[00:24:08.720]And I've got the metals downstairs and I'm not sure I could tell you which
[00:24:13.520]year I won which metals.
[00:24:19.780]It's kinda nice to enjoy those things too, isn't it? Yeah.
[00:24:24.220]But there's always another one coming up and we're always getting prepared for
[00:24:28.780]the next one.
[00:24:31.210]Takes a lot of practice?
[00:24:33.010]A lot of practice.
[00:24:37.260]Tell me about your family Maury.
[00:24:40.050]My wife and I were both married before,
[00:24:44.280]so we each had two families.
[00:24:52.080]We have six daughters,
[00:24:57.510]two grandchildren,
[00:25:02.400]And they're, they're just wonderful. We enjoy them all.
[00:25:06.330]Did they live here in Omaha?
[00:25:08.910]They all started here in Omaha.
[00:25:14.250]But Joan's daughters all live someplace else.
[00:25:18.750]Mine all live here.
[00:25:21.870]And you get together as a family quite often?
[00:25:25.260]Well, we get together as often as we can.
[00:25:30.900]I think we see a lot of each other.
[00:25:54.780]Well, I wanted to stop and give you a, let you catch your breath for a second.
[00:26:04.690]Maury, in 2001, you were honored by the Omaha Business Hall of Fame.
[00:26:10.000]I'd like to read the citation that was given you at that time.
[00:26:13.520]Thank you.
[00:26:16.280]Energy, ideas and involvement in the community
[00:26:19.160]describe Maury Udes. Starting as a manufacturer's representative in
[00:26:23.900]1946,
[00:26:25.760]the World War II veteran built a lumber and building supply business into what
[00:26:30.590]is today
[00:26:31.190]one of the largest single location lumberyard in the country born in
[00:26:35.960]Pine Bluff, Arkansas,
[00:26:37.670]Udes graduated from Purdue University with an electrical engineering degree
[00:26:42.900]and then spent the next three years in the army field artillery in war-torn
[00:26:47.460]Europe. In 1946,
[00:26:50.340]Udes returned to Arkansas and took a sales job with Lyon Metal Products.
[00:26:55.170]He then transferred to Omaha and continued representing Lyon.
[00:26:59.550]He started Builders Supply Company in 1951 at an old coal yard site.
[00:27:05.100]The company first sold lumber and other building materials.
[00:27:08.490]And later expanded into millwork. After several expansions,
[00:27:12.720]the company moved to the 35 acre site at 5701
[00:27:17.400]South 72nd Street,
[00:27:19.410]where it currently operates. In 1971.
[00:27:23.700]Udes set up one of the first employee stock ownership plans, ESOP,
[00:27:28.590]and began turning over company ownership to the employees. Today,
[00:27:33.060]the company is totally owned by its over 220 employees.
[00:27:37.650]Now retired from Builders Supply Company, Udes remains active in land
[00:27:42.240]development through several companies. In the past 25 years,
[00:27:46.350]he has developed many residential subdivisions. Through the Metropolitan Omaha
[00:27:51.300]Builders Association, MOBA. Udes fought ordinances
[00:27:55.530]which would restrict growth and was instrumental in helping pass LB
[00:28:00.000]775 and LB 270 business growth
[00:28:04.470]incentive.
[00:28:06.240]That's quite an honor, Maury. Thank you.
[00:28:14.130]This is a picture of my mother and her family. In the
[00:28:18.990]upper left-hand corner is her brother, Dan.
[00:28:24.180]And next to Dan, it's his wife Etta.
[00:28:29.160]And then next to Etta
[00:28:33.780]is my mother's brother-in-law Stanley.
[00:28:38.940]And next to Stanley is
[00:28:42.390]his wife my mother's sister and then
[00:28:46.980]the next row down on the left side is
[00:28:52.440]my mother's brother Leon. And then,
[00:28:57.510]my mother's father and mother,
[00:29:01.320]and then on the far right, is my mother.
[00:29:07.050]And that's the complete family.
[00:29:15.830]This is my grandmother's sister and her husband.
[00:29:20.180]The sister is the one that went to the camp
[00:29:24.650]De Gurs concentration camp, which was
[00:29:29.990]close to the Spanish border, French-Spanish border.
[00:29:35.210]And she did not survive.
[00:29:40.130]This is my
[00:29:43.660]maternal grandfather that I'm named after.
[00:29:47.260]His name was Morris.
[00:29:54.460]This is my grandmother in her younger years,
[00:29:59.500]her name, my grandmother's name was Francis.
[00:30:08.560]This is my grandmother Francis,
[00:30:12.280]as she appeared when she was somewhat older.
[00:30:21.710]This is my mother when she was a young girl.
[00:30:32.930]This is my mother with a happy smile on her face.
[00:30:38.960]She was still young, but older than she was in the prior picture.
[00:30:48.430]This is a picture of my Dad.

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Maurice Udes Interview (Part 1)

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