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8A Daily News – Saturday, January 19, 2013 Glory Days maturity &lifestyles Salesman for 70 years, 'Uncle Dunckel' retires at 91 By Doug Livingston Akron Beacon Journal (MCT) AKRON, Ohio — George Dunckel started selling classroom furniture before Joe Louis lost a heavyweight title fight in 1950. It's a landmark in time that helps "Uncle Dunckel" remember the old days, when "schools appreciated having someone come around," he said. Back then, schools bolted solid wooden desks — with inkwells and cast-iron frames — to the floor. Tables had to be stacked instead of folded. And salesmen made personal visits instead of phone calls. Over the years, more than furniture changed, but Dunckel, who made every sale with a nod and a handshake up until his retirement on New Year's Eve, took pride in doing business the old-fashioned way. "I'm like a car that has 350,000 miles on it," Dunckel said of his 67 years in the retail business. At 91 years old, Dunckel leans on a cane to shoulder the weight of his sales materials, which he lugged from his Mercury to his customers for decades. Time has taken a toll on his body, but with a pressed collar and a straight tie, his mind is as sharp as his wardrobe. Dunckel, who sold furniture to the Ravenna school district for more than a half-century, figures he has seen about three or four generations of superintendents and school business managers come and go. But he remembers every one of them, as well as their hobbies and family. "It's all about developing relationships," said Ray Nist, who retired in 2010 as business manager of North Canton schools. Nist first worked with Dunckel in 1992 as business manager for Tallmadge schools. After 18 years of making deals with Dunckel, Nist said, he got more than a receipt with every transaction: He got "service." When an order arrived, Dunckel was there to make sure the customer was sat- Affluent couples see taxes rise By Donna Gehrke-White Sun Sentinel (MCT) MCT photo George Dunckel, 91, looks over the furniture in the library at Wilyard Elementary School in Ravenna, Ohio, that he sold to the school district. After decades of selling desks and other furniture to schools, Dunckel finally retired on New Year's Eve to take care of his wife of 71 years. isfied. It's one of many courtesies that make a great salesman, Nist said. "That still holds true today," he said, "But George got to know people on a personal level." Dunckel did all the little things that made a difference. To shield his customers from losses caused by damage in transit, he trained school custodians on unloading, assembling and inspecting shipments. When visiting a school, he would pick up a stray pencil on the hallway floor and drop it off in the office with a smile. He jotted down each customer's birthday on a Rolodex card next to a land line or — some years later — a cellphone number. "You don't have that (service) anymore," said Hank Dunckel, George's son and owner of Dunckel Distributing Co. With generations of salesmen, furniture became a Dunckel family tradition. Hank Dunckel remembers using one of his father's samples, a scaleddown replica of a window shade, for a class demonstration in high school. Growing up, he recalls used furniture littering the house. Hank Dunckel launched his business in his father's footsteps in the same building George used in the early 1970s. "I took over the phone bill and the rent," Hank Dunckel said. He took over his father's customers, manufacturers and distributors, too. "If I needed help with a certain contact, I could call Dad." George, whom customers cordially called Uncle Dunckel, married his wife of 71 years in 1941. He finally retired this year so that he could take care of her; otherwise, he said, he would have kept selling till the day he died. After returning from the war in Europe in 1945, he took a job with the F.W. Woolworth Co. as a manager-in-training. Then, he worked as a sales representative for Quaker Oats from 1950 to 1955. During that time, he sold furniture on the side to General Electric and made his first sale to a school district in Schenectady, N.Y., about two hours south of where he grew up near the Vermont border of upstate New York. He got his break in 1957, when he took a job selling school furniture for Piqua-based Miller Co. He worked on commission, selling to districts from Steubenville to Cleveland, from Pennsylvania to Mansfield, and just about everywhere in between. He would fly customers to a furniture manufacturer in Texas on a twin engine Bonanza airplane in a time before the Internet. "When (school officials) are investing all that money, they want to be sure of the product and the people," Dunckel said. After cornering the Northeast Ohio market, he launched a company with a colleague in the late 1960s. He subsequently flipped the operation to his son and worked as the educational director for Beckley-Cardy Inc., a furniture and equipment company in Ravenna. He retired — for the first time — in 1992. After that, he split profits with his son for the next 20 years, maintaining ageold clients like Bill Wisniewski, director of business operations for Ravenna schools. "Here's a man of 91, and he kept up. Smart boards. Technology," Wisniewski said. "He kept up with the industry, but he was so personable." Wisniewski, Nist and school administrators across Northeast Ohio still call him "Uncle Dunckel," attaching phrases like "first-class gentleman" and "honest guy." Throughout his career, Dunckel said, he always employed common sense, a solid work ethic, knowledge of his product and — most important — a love of the trade. "If you don't like people, don't get involved," he said. As tax season starts, Plantation, Fla., accountant Sheri Schultz has started crunching numbers — and she doesn't like what she sees. Her family is facing tax increases to the tune of thousands of dollars this year. They and other families with high dual incomes are finding they will owe more in new taxes this year after Congress voted on increases to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Specifically, married couples who earn at least $250,000 a year will paying more in taxes — much more than their single counterparts, who are allowed to make $200,000 a year before higher taxes kick in. "It's a hidden tax," said Coral Springs, Fla., accountant Joel Feller. "People are in for a big surprise." The new tax increases hit hardest the couples that have both spouses working. More than one-third of women outearn their husbands, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Schultz is one of them — and now her family will be paying more in taxes than if she had not married. "It's absolutely unfair," she said. Nationally, 83 percent of households making above $250,000 are led by married couples, who would be hit by the new taxes, according to Maryland-based Sentier Research Group, which recently crunched U.S. Census Bureau data. Most of the attention has been on Congress raising taxes on people who make at least $400,000. But others who are doing well financially but make less will still pay more taxes. Schultz said she already knows that her husband and their three children are getting hit hard with new federal taxes on several fronts, from added Social Security taxes to tax breaks cut because of their high income. The family is losing part of their deductions and personal exemptions, amounting to thousands of dollars in additional taxes — thanks to Congress during the recent fiscal cliff negotiations limiting deductions and exemptions of couples who make more than $300,000 a year in adjusted gross income. (Singles aren't hit until they earn $250,000 a year in adjusted gross income.) Then Schultz and her husband will have to pay the extra 2 percent in Social Security taxes on each of their first $113,700 in yearly income. "This is the double whammy for dual-income working couples," accountant Feller said. A single person earning their income would only have to pay once on the first $113,700, he noted. High-income couples will also have to pay more under the new health care law, Feller added. It raises in 2013 the Medicare tax by 0.9 percent for those single tax filers who earn more than $200,000 a year or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly, Feller said. Finally, under the new health care law, people in those higher income groups will also pay an extra 3.8 percent tax on capital gains, dividends, interest, annuities, royalties, rental income and on investments, Schultz said. She said the new taxes hit dual-income professionals the most. ——— NEW TAXES: Married couples who make at least $250,000 who will be more limited in the amount of deductions and personal exemptions they can claim. They will also pay: —2 percent more in Social Security taxes. —Just under 1 percent more in the Medicare tax. —An extra 3.8 percent tax on capital gains, dividends, interest, annuities, royalties, rental income and investments. Appendicitis requires immediate medical attention DEAR DOCTOR K: Every time my husband has abdominal pain, he worries that it's appendicitis. Can you tell me the actual symptoms so I can assure him he's fine? DEAR READER: Many different conditions can cause abdominal pain. 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It affects one in every 500 people in the United States each year. Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix. Your appendix is a small, fingerlike tube. We don't know of anything good the appendix does for us — we just know it can cause trouble. Many people, including many of my patients, worry about appendicitis whenever they get a pain in their belly. It's worth worrying about: Appendicitis can have serious and life-threatening consequences. Left untreated, an inflamed appendix can burst. The infection can then spread throughout the abdominal cavity and into the bloodstream. The appendix hangs from the lower right side of the large intestine. If your husband's pain is predominantly on his left $ 6,02132 in Discount Coupons were published last week in the DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY … And that does not Count all the ads offering percentage discounts, two-for-ones and Free-with-Purchase offers! Don't miss a Day of it! Subscribe Today 527-2151 It pays for itself. side, it's probably not (CT) scan can also proappendicitis. (I've put an vide evidence for or illustration of where the against the diagnosis. When the symptoms, appendix is located on my w e b s i t e , physical examination and tests all strongly suggest AskDoctorK.com.) Appendicitis causes that a person has appendicitis, surgery to remove the following symptoms: the appendix (an — Abdominal appendectomy) is pain: This usualrequired, as soon ly starts just as possible. That's above the belly because a ruptured button, then appendix can be moves over sevlife-threatening, eral hours to the while an appendecright lower side tomy is a relatively of the abdomen. — Nausea Dr. K low-risk operation. If doctors think — Vomiting by Anthony L. — Abdominal Komaroff, M.D. the likelihood of appendicitis is high swelling — Pain when the right — even without blood side of the abdomen is tests or imaging studies — they'll operate. If doctouched tors think appendicitis is — Low-grade fever — Inability to pass gas unlikely but still possible, continue to — Change in normal they'll observe a person in the bowel pattern Appendicitis is an emergency room, and emergency and requires operate later if the person immediate attention to doesn't get better. Still, our diagnostic avoid the risk of a ruptured appendix. If your accuracy is not perfect: In husband ever has symp- about 10 percent to 25 toms of appendicitis, he percent of appendecshould contact his doctor tomies, the appendix is normal. It's usually right away. The doctor will ask removed anyway, since about his symptoms, then it's easy to do once the has been check for pain in the abdomen lower right abdomen. opened, and because it Blood tests, ultrasound or could cause trouble in the a computed tomography future.