Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 2 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 23

Paul J. Stem occupies a leading position in business circles of Milwaukee as the president of the Atlas Bread Factory, which he established in 1900 and in which connection he has since developed an enterprise of mammoth proportions. Milwaukee numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred on the 23rd of July, 1876, his parents being Bernhard and Jennie (Poppert) Stem, both of whom are deceased. The father, who was long a prominent figure in business circles here, established the first machine shoe factory in Milwaukee and became the president of the Atlas Flour Mills. Also in connection with Robert C. Spencer he founded the Wisconsin School for the Deaf and Dumb. The mother was the first pupil and the first graduate of the Milwaukee University School.

Paul J. Stern acquired his early education in the public schools, later attended St. John's Military Academy and for three years was a student in the East Side high school. After putting aside his textbooks he turned his attention to bread and cake baking, which business has claimed his time and energies continuously. In 1900 he established the Atlas Bread Factory, which he has since operated with a capacity of twelve thousand loaves per day, and is now building an addition which will increase the capacity to one hundred and twenty thousand loaves daily. In addition to discharging the important duties of president of the Atlas Bread Factory he is also serving as vice president of the Atlas Flour Mills and is widely recognized as a splendid executive of sound Judgment and keen discernment, who well merits the prosperity which has come to him.

In June, 1917, Mr. Stern went into active service in the World war with the rank of captain, remaining in this country as company commander until June. 1918, while from the latter date until the 15th of August, 1918, he was an inspector in France. In August, 1918, he was placed in command of the Mechanical Bakery at Is-sur-Tille, France, which bakery had a capacity of one million, five hundred thousand pounds of bread per day and a personnel of twenty-three officers and eleven hundred and thirty-four enlisted men. This was the largest bakery in the world and supplied all the bread to the American troops at the front, four freight trainloads of bread being shipped daily. Mr. Stern was promoted to the rank of major in August, 1918, and received his discharge on the 9th of February, 1919.

It was on the 8th of November, 1905, in Milwaukee, that Mr. Stern was united in marriage to Miss Daisy Koch, a daughter of Henry C. Koch, who was one of Milwaukee's most prominent architects, and who acted as aid to General Phil Sheridan during the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Stern have been born three children: Elizabeth Ellen, Nancy Pauline and John Pershing.

In politics Mr. Stern maintains a non-partisan attitude, supporting men and measures rather than party. He is a popular member of the Milwaukee Athletic Club, the Wisconsin Club and the Milwaukee Country Club. He was one of the organizers of the Rotary Club, was its first treasurer, and past president in 1920. In Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is likewise identified with the Mystic Shrine. His life has been spent in Milwaukee, where he has won a host of friends and where his reputation as a business man and citizen is a most enviable one.