Benjamin Libman dies at 86

by eyetee | January 19, 2009 12:00 am

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The Canadian jewellery industry has lost one of its pioneers.

Benjamin Libman of Toronto-based Libman & Co. passed away in hospital on Dec. 14 surrounded by family, one month shy of his 87th birthday.

His son, Mark, says his father helped build the family business not by stepping on toes, but through honesty and hard work.

“There are no grudges,” he says of the countless customers and suppliers his father worked with over the years. “It’s an unblemished record of integrity and kindness.”

Libman’s career in the jewellery industry began in 1937 when he apprenticed as a diamond setter. He then joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he served as an instruments mechanic in Gander, N.L. In 1952, he went to work with his brothers, Albert and Louis, in the business they founded in 1934, when Canada was still in the throes of the Great Depression.

“They said, ‘Kid, you’re going to be a salesman,'” Mark recalls. “He quickly realized they had to expand the business and he travelled from one side of the country to the other.” Libman formed a customer base that exists to this day through children and grandchildren, his son said. “His was one of the last of that generation in our industry,” Mark added.

Originally located at 21 Dundas Square, the company moved to its current location in North Toronto where Libman built a state-of-the-art facility “from the bench out,” Mark notes proudly.

“I come here every day, which is where he came every day. That’s an enduring memory. No one has sat at his desk since the day he left because no one can fill that chair.”

Libman served as president of the Canadian Jewellers 24 Karat Club from 1987 to 1988. He retired from the business that bears his name in 1999.

Source URL: https://www.jewellerybusiness.com/news/benjamin-libman-dies-at-86/