George A. Rysdale Pages 371-372 - George A. Rysdale organized and is the executive head of the Rysdale Candy Company, which under his progressive and well ordered policies has developed a large and prosperous wholesale business in the distribution of high grade candies throughout the trade territory tributary to Grand Rapids. In this city the establishment of the company is at 39 Michigan street, Northwest. Mr. Rysdale was born in Grand Rapids on the 25th of December, 1874, and is a son of Charles A. and Clara (Davis) Rysdale, who were born in the province of Ontario, Canada, and who established their home in Grand Rapids within a comparatively short time after their marriage, both having been residents of this city at the time of their death. The Grand Rapids public schools, including the high school, afforded George A. Rysdale his early educational advantages, and as a young man he became a traveling commercial salesman in the handling of cigars. After having been thus engaged several years he associated himself, in 1908, with the wholesale candy business in his native city, and in 1911 he organized the Rysdale Candy Company, which confines its business exclusively to the wholesale trade and which is now one of the important concerns of its kind in western Michigan. Mr. Rysdale is a loyal member of the Grand Rapids Board of Commerce, is secretary and treasurer of the Grand Rapids Candy Association, is a member of the Credit Men’s Association, and has membership in the Grand Rapids Motor Club. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a member of the Masonic Country Club of Grand Rapids. He is a life member of Grand Rapids Lodge No. 48, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1892 Mr. Rysdale was united in marriage to Miss Leila B. Redding, daughter of the late Martin Redding, of Grand Rapids. Mr. Redding came with is wife from Ohio to Grand Rapids, and in this city both passed the remainder of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Rysdale have one daughter, Jacqueline, who is the wife of Edward C. Hansen, of Chicago, Illinois, and who has a daughter, Barbara Lee Hansen.

Transcriber:  Nancy Myers
Created: 6 July 2003