The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Local barber retiring after 62 years
Chris Haddock is chief of the Euclid Fire Department
Ryan Schneider of Willoughby Hills coaches the boys varsity basketball team at St. Martin de Porres High School in Cleveland.
Tom Mirando of Willoughby spent 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, serving in outposts around the globe.
What all these gentlemen have in common is the habit of getting their haircuts from Sam Ventura at Shore Center Barber and Stylist in Euclid.
Ventura, an 89-year-old Euclid resident, recently announced he’ll retire after 62 years in the business, all at the cozy shop on Shore Center Drive. His last day on the job is July 28.
“I’ve been getting my haircuts here for 40 years. This place is Americana,” Haddock said, smiling.
Mirando, born and raised in Euclid, has been a regular since he moved back to Northeast Ohio from California six years ago.
“Coming here is a comfort thing,” he said after Ventura finished his cut with a hot-lather shave of his neck.
Schneider grew up n Euclid, too.
“I’ve been coming here for 33 years. Have never gone anywhere else because Sam is the best,” Schneider said.
Ventura smiled as these longtime customers sang his praises.
“These guys and all my customers, I’m going to miss seeing them,” Ventura said. “I always took pride in remembering their names and the cuts they liked.”
Except for a brief stretch years ago when his parents moved to Cleveland, Ventura has lived and worked in Euclid.
“Euclid is my life,” Ventura said. “I was born here, married a Euclid girl in 1948, sent four kids to school in Euclid and opened my shop here on March 6, 1956.”
Ventura is still married to that Euclid girl, Patricia. They have eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Almost all of the memories Ventura has of his years as a barber are pleasant ones. Most of his customers have been regular guys from Euclid and the surrounding communities. A fair number of Euclid’s political and community leaders were regulars, too. Former Indians manager Charlie Manuel and well-known college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, a Euclid native, were known to stop in for a cut.
The roughest time for his business, Ventura recalled, was during the late 1960s and 1970s when many men chose to wear long hair and rarely came in for trims.
“You had to adapt,” said Ventura, who got his barber’s license in 1947 but went back to school in the early ‘70s to be trained as a stylist.
At its peak, Ventura said, he had two other full-time barbers in the shop. One of them, Willoughby resident Nancy Barrett, now an insurance saleswoman, still comes in on Saturdays to help with cuts.
“Sam has such a nice group of customers. I’ll miss seeing them,” Barrett said.
Haddock helped draft a proclamation citing Ventura’s contributions to the community that was given to him on June 16 at the regular meeting of Euclid City Council.
Ventura has been handing notes to customers suggesting they patronize LaMarca’s Barber Shop on East 185th Street in Euclid.
At least for a while after he closes his shop, Ventura said, he’ll cut hair there on Wednesdays.
Until July 28, Shore Center Barber and Stylist will be open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The shop is open from 8 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and closed on Wednesdays.
“These guys and all my customers, I’m going to miss seeing them.” — Euclid barber Sam Ventura