Funeral is Tuesday for slain jeweler

A funeral for William J. Glatz Jr., 67, of Holland, will be at noon Tuesday, Oct. 26, at Fluehr Funeral Home, 800 Newtown-Richboro Rd., Richboro. Friends may call from 9:30 a.m.

Mr. Glatz, owner of William Glatz Jewelers on Rising Sun Avenue in the Lawncrest section of Philadelphia, was killed Thursday, Oct. 21, during an attempted robbery of his store. He exchanged gunfire with one of the robbers, Kevin Turner, who also was killed. Police are seeking at least two accomplices.

For the last 35 years, Mr. Glatz operated the jewelry store that his father, William Sr., a German immigrant, established more than 60 years ago.

For more than 10 years, Mr. Glatz also owned a jewelry store in Jamison, Bucks County, which his wife manages.

A friend, Jack Dillon, told The Inquirer that Mr. Glatz had insisted on keeping the shop on Rising Sun open despite increasing crime in the area, so loyal was he to old customers who didn't drive and needed repairs to their jewelry, watches, and clocks.

"He had the guts to stay, and he felt there was always a need for his services," said Al Taubenberger, president of the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. "He did a lot of repairs - changing a setting, making a ring bigger. He was a master jeweler."

Mr. Glatz learned his skills from his father. For children growing up in the neighborhood, Taubenberger said, a visit to the shop with its Hummel figurines and dozens of cuckoo clocks chiming on the hour was the stuff of lifelong memories.

Mr. Glatz was a 1961 graduate of Frankford High School. He enjoyed travel and fishing, his family said, and repairing anything mechanical in his workshops at home and at his store. His daughter, Cheryl Garr, said he was a "genius with his hands."

He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Donna McGee Glatz; a son, Robert; a sister; and two grandchildren. Donations may be made to the American Heart Association, 5455 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio 43214.