Ries, Bernard (1879-1933) | Sargeant Memorial Collection

Name: Ries, Bernard (1879-1933)

Historical Note: Born in Norfolk, Virginia on March 1, 1879, Bernard Ries was the only son of Abraham Ries, a German immigrant and language teacher, and Pauline Pfiefer, a milliner from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. From at least 1870 to 1911, the Ries family operated a millinery business on Church Street where Bernard worked as a clerk for several years in his youth. Affectionately known as “Doc,” Bernard worked for almost a decade as a druggist in downtown Norfolk after successfully passing his Virginia Board pharmacist examinations in 1902. Two years after becoming its manager, Bernard appeared to be operating College Place Pharmacy as his own by 1906. By late 1910, he had moved the business from its original location on 168 Granby Street to 150 Granby Street. It appears that eventually Ries switched professions and by 1918, had found employment with the advertising department of the Virginian Pilot Publishing Co., where he worked until his death on November 29, 1933. Ries married Sadie Levenstein on November 10, 1927, and it appears that the couple had no children before Barnard’s untimely death a few years later. Sadie passed away on October 5, 1981. Ries and his wife, along with both his parents and one of his older sisters, Eva, are buried in a family plot at Hebrew Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.

Records or Manuscript Collections Created by Ries, Bernard