When it all began…
I’ve always loved this business. I got into it when I was 17 years old. My very first optical job was with the founders of Garden State Optical, Larry and George Cohen, who went on to start Hillman Eyes. After spending 21 months in the US Army in Vietnam, I returned to my job at Garden State Optical, but soon after the location I was working at was sold to another wholesale optical distributor. My first job as an actual optician started with Hillman Eyes in 1966 From there I met my life long friends, Doug Rossi and Albert Gleek III.
Not long after traveling to the Woodstock Festival with Mr. Gleek, he offered to sell the current location of Gleek and Howard to me. It took me 8 months to scrape up the money of which my father gave his baby the last $80 out of his wallet. When I bought the store I put down a deposit and paid the rest off over a time. It was difficult in the beginning as there was no stock and no machinery. Just me and my will to make it work. The rest they say is history.
So the business as it is today was born in 1972 and now we are at 50 years. It still seems like yesterday. When I first got to Montclair I instantly fell in love with the town. I thought the air was clearer and fresher. It just appealed to me. I thought this was a place I would like to live. I’m still here at the same location and it has have given me great pleasure helping the people of this town with their glasses for so many years. It’s like family now and it still gives me joy each and every day.