As a young boy growing up in Dunsmuir during the Great Depression, Nicola “Nick” Girimonte helped put food on the family table by selling fruit to Southern Pacific railroad passengers. That initiative, work ethic and an early understanding of customer service emerged as hallmarks of Nick’s long and productive life.

Nick, who partnered with his brother Joe to operate Girimonte’s Men’s Store as one of Redding’s first Market Street merchants, died of natural causes on Dec. 12, 2017. He was 97.