First the two squirrels frequented the couple’s yard. Then the couple named them Esther and Moishe, apparently choosing the Jewish names just because they liked them. Later, after his wife died, Rudolph Geringer began letting the pair in the house.
The “owner” of the squirrels, Geringer died in Novato on June 4. He was 104.
Born in Czechoslovakia on March 22, 1900, Geringer lived in Vienna before moving in 1938 to New York.
Trained as a soapmaker, he went to work for Colgate-Palmolive in Buffalo, N.Y. In 1946, he divorced his second wife and moved to California, where he married Hildegarde Geringer in 1948.
He continued to work for Colgate-Palmolive until he was forced to retire in 1965. Although he was 65, Geringer was not quite ready to quit working.
“He worked until he was 86,” said Ingrid Rubin of San Rafael, Geringer’s cousin through marriage. “He painted people’s houses, did carpentry, anything he could do.”
Rubin said Geringer painted the exterior of her home when he was 78. She recalled a particularly funny incident when she was cleaning the windows, as he finished the final coat. All of a sudden, he disappeared.
“He had fallen off the ladder,” said Rubin. Panicking, she was about to call 911 when she heard something. Rubin found Geringer lying on a patch of grass, swearing at the top of his lungs.
Rubin said that her cousin was still smoking several cigarettes a day and that he continued to enjoy a daily glass of vermouth up until two weeks before his death.
“He was very low-key. He loved opera and reading,” she said.
Geringer was predeceased by his wife and all his siblings. He is survived by nieces and nephews.
Donations can be sent to Jewish Family and Children’s Services, 600 Fifth Ave., San Rafael, CA, 94901.