Herman Frank Staiger

Herman Staiger, of Spring Lake, passed away suddenly yet peacefully at dawn on Saturday, Feb. 8. He was 82 years young. He was a self made man; an icon of the natural rubber industry in which he still worked up until a month of his passing. He was the second tenant in the World Trade Center and worked on Wall Street. As a member of the Circumnavigators Club, he traveled extensively in Southeast Asia and Africa and was a Navy veteran in the Korean War. He grew up in Astoria, Queens while attending high school with Tony Bennett. He is a legend of Spring Lake, [known as “Herman the German”] where he could be found swinging his tennis racket at The Warren Hotel, zipping around in his convertible, walking his dog, listening to the Yankee game in the sun or atop a stool at the local bar chirping in your ear. Wherever he was, he could always tell a great story to make many crack a wide smile with his charm and dapperness. A memorial and gathering of his friends will be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Breakers Hotel in Spring Lake in the Sea View room from 2—4 p.m., “Where he liked to celebrate a special occasion.” All that is required is your attendance and to share the story my father told you that sticks in the recesses of your memory. Let us send him off in style!