Dewey Blocksma  Page 614-617 - Dewey Blocksma is a vice-president and general manager of the Breen & Halladay Fuel Company, a concern that has controlled for fully a quarter of a century a substantial and representative business in Grand Rapids, in the handling of coal, coke and firewood, in both a wholesale and retail way, the company having been reorganized in 1906, when it was incorporated under the present title and when Mr. Blocksma assumed his present dual office, that of vice-president and general manager. The large and well equipped yards and also the office of the company are established on Franklin street, southwest, with direct trackage connection with the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad, now a part of the great Pennsylvania railroad system. W. J. Breen, president of the company, is now virtually retired from active business and the other active executive is Glenn C. Mason, who is secretary and treasurer, and whose father, Salisbury Mason, was one of he early exponents of farm industry in Kent county. Dewey Blocksma was born in Grand Rapids, August 1, 1884, and is a son of Ralph and Elizabeth (Quartell) Blocksma, the former of whom died here in 1906, and the latter of whom died in 1921. Ralph Blocksma was born and reared in Holland and was a youth when he established his home in Grand Rapids, in 1875, he having been for many years associated with the Grand Rapids Dry Goods Company, with which he continued his alliance until his death, with standing as one of the loyal and public-spirited citizens of the community. Dewey Blocksma is indebted to the Grand Rapids public schools for his youthful education, and here also he has gained his practical business experience, in connection with which he has won advancement to his present executive office. The Breen & Halladay Coal Company has membership in the American Wholesale Coal Dealers’ Association, the Michigan, Ohio and Indiana Coal Dealers’ Association, and the Grand Rapids Coal Dealers’ Exchange, of which Mr. Blocksma is president at the time of this writing, in the summer of 1925. Mr. Blocksma is a popular and valued member of the Grand Rapids Association of Commerce, the local Credit Association and the Exchange Club, Knickerbocker Club and Lotus Club. He is influential in the affairs and service of the local Y. M. C. A., of which he is a trustee, and he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Reformed Church. The maiden name of Mrs. Blocksma was Abbie N. DeBoer, and she was born and reared in Grand Rapids. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Blocksma are three in number, namely: Marion Jean, Ralph and Douglas Dewey.

Transcriber: Nancy Myers
Created: 30 December 2002