Michael Etzrodt
by Bob Waite
Michael T. Etzrodt didn’t want to leave the Kensington section of Philadelphia and move “out in the country.” Mary Etzrodt, Mike’s wife of 52 years, smiled as she talked about the impression this family emigration from Philadelphia to Bensalem had on Mike. “He was not happy about moving to Bensalem at the age of 13 or 14 years old. He got into lots of fights with the neighborhood kids.” But an interest in sports changed Mike’s views on his new hometown. Mary explained, “He loved sports. So in high school he played baseball, he wrestled, and he was on the football and track team.” Later as an adult Mike became a golfer and won father/son tournaments with his sons Michael Jr. and Matthew.
But sports alone could not account for his feelings about Bucks County. Mayor of Bensalem and close friend Joseph DiGirolamo said, “Mike loved Bucks County.” Everyone who knew him agreed. Mike Etzrodt became a great supporter of the Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau and changed the organization from a small tourist bureau into an active visitor’s bureau that effectively markets Bucks County to visitors, businessmen, sports teams, religious gatherings, and conferences large and small.
Mike worked hard all his life. He graduated from Bensalem High School in 1957 and went to Rider College to study business. While attending Rider Mike worked nights at the International Paper Co. where his father worked. He had little time to sleep so he slept in his car, often between classes. Mike finished the two-year program in business and in 1961, married Mary and began a very successful business career. His Bucks County businesses included Abarto Paper, Quality Art Engraving, Pennbrook Hauling, M.T.E Motel Construction Co., Motel Management Services, and the Mall Motel and Neshaminy Inn, both of which he is responsible for building. And with his son Matthew he also started up Suds Beer Store in Bensalem.
Jerry Lepping, the director of the Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau said, “Mike not only worked hard, but he also demanded excellence from himself and everyone associated with him.” Jerry also explained how Mike’s integrity was impeccable. “He was the most honest person you could meet. He told you exactly what he felt and was usually right. And when he was wrong, he would admit it.”
He admitted he was wrong about the hotel tax, a measure he fought to defeat. Sandy Miller, a Bucks County Commissioner from 1991 to 2008, spearheaded an effort to institute a hotel tax in Bucks County. “Mike was my most formidable adversary,” she said. “He would appear at all the meetings and would bring others to strenuously object to this tax. I first thought his efforts were that of a self-serving businessman from Bensalem, but found that not to be the case. He was sincere. He knew that tourism was a major business for Bucks County and that overnight stays in hotels spilled over into money being spent on restaurants, shops and other things. He really believed that the tax would have a negative effect on Bucks County’s economy.”
Sandy believed the tax would help market Bucks County. Mike was skeptical. “Once the tax was passed, Mike made it known that he was going to watch how the funds were used.” And that’s when the County Commissioners decided to appoint Mike to what was then the Bucks County Tourist Commission as a director on its board. Mike served for 20 years, half of which he was president. Jerry Lepping said, “He was president and vice president, alternating every term.” And it was in this role that he saw the potential of using the tax and the Visitor’s Bureau to promote Bucks County.
As president of the Board of Directors of the Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau, Mike saw the Bureau grow in stature and importance. The project that became his signature creation was the Visitor’s Center on Street Road in Bensalem. He worked out deals with the mayor of Bensalem, the county, banks, and he worked with architects and bankers and a variety of public servants and private citizens to plan, finance and build this center. His persuasiveness, negotiating skills, and winsome manner helped create one of the finest public buildings in Bucks County and a base where the Visitor’s Bureau could have remarkable success competing with other CVDs for tourist dollars.
Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo of Bensalem said, “Mike put everything he had into getting the new Visitor’s Center. He worked with the architect and drew on his extensive knowledge of Bucks County to get a building that would look like the farmhouses of Bucks County and yet be a serviceable first class visitor’s center. What Mike did was huge.”
Jim Humphreys, a director and several time president of the BCCVB board, “He was a genius at business. He would make a deal and cut our interest rate on the mortgage or find some savings in the insurance and save thousands of dollars. He would see things no one else could. And this was especially true in his tireless work to get this new center built.”
Mike was hard working and dedicated to Bucks County and he was fun. Mayor DiGirolamo loved his sense of humor. “Mike was one-of-a-kind. He joked a lot and he told stories.” In fact his reputation for story telling has led several friends to lament not writing them down. Jim Humphreys remembered that Mike, in the process of telling his stories gave everyone he knew a nickname.
Mike even had his own nickname, Bebop. His daughter Maria explained, “Bebop rhymed with Grandpop and Dad like things to rhyme. So all his grandchildren learned to call him Bebop.”
Mike was fun. Maria Etzrodt Gibbons and Matthew Etzrodt characterized growing up with Mike as their father as “fun” but also tongue-in-cheek Maria said, “It was insane.” She explained that Mike was nocturnal. And his wife Mary noted that the schedule of working nights and sleeping during the day stuck with Mike, so that he was always up all night. Maria said, “It wasn’t until I got engaged and married that I realized that other people wouldn’t stay up until three in the morning. Or distance—when we lived in Wilkesboro, it was a big trip for my inlaws to come from Scranton to see us. It was only ten miles. When I was a kid, we would shoot down to Trenton at 10 o’clock to have a hamburger at Rossi’s. Or we would go down to Philly to Pat’s and get a cheesesteak. It would be one o’clock in the morning when we would be coming home—forty miles!”
Mike’s late nights are source of many fond memories. Jim Humphreys said, “When the phone rang at 11 o’clock my wife would say before she answered it, ‘It’s Mike.” Jerry Lepping said, “He would call me around 11:30 every night to talk sports and to see what was going on at the Visitor’s Bureau.”
If his late night schedule was well known, Mike’s knowledge of Bucks County geography is legendary. Mayor DiGirolamo said, “There wasn’t a road or restaurant in Bucks County that Mike didn’t know.”
Mike loved taking rides and just looking at the Bucks County countryside. He loved the Delaware River. His children said that Sunday afternoons were often a time when they all piled into the car and would explore different parts of the county. His daughter Maria recalled, “There was this one road in Tinicum where at the base of the it was this little creek. He would shift into neutral and go flying down the hill. We probably didn’t have seat belts and may have been sitting on top of the armrest, but we thought it was the coolest thing in the world, flying down that hill in Tinicum and jumping the creek. We never knew for sure whether we were going to make it. It always depended on the level of the creek, which we didn’t see until we were halfway down.”
Matthew said, “He was fun and played with us and we all had a good time, but he was also a good father. We were encouraged to do well in school, to learn history, to understand business, and he could discipline us if we needed it.” Maria said, “In some ways we were different than the other kids. We couldn’t even play gin with them, because the way we learned was the way they played at the country club, where it would be twenty five points for a knock and fifty for gin. The kids didn’t know that; they didn’t play for chips.”
Mike also was a history buff. He especially liked the Civil War period and anything about Bucks County history. He read several magazines on Civil War history and loved to read the town histories in this magazine. That is why he gave subscriptions to Bucks County Magazine and a Civil War magazine as a present to his grandchildren. He also gave prizes for things like their being able to memorize and recite the Gettysburg Address.
“Mike cared about people,” Mayor DiGirolamo said. The mayor recounts a time when a friend of Mike was sick and dying and Mike dropped everything to go to Georgia and stay with his friend. “Mike was loyal. You couldn’t have a better friend than him. He was a gentleman and I can’t tell you anyone I would count as friend more than him.”
Mike died on in his Upper Makefield home on July 27, 2014. He was greatly respected and loved for his honesty, humor, ability, knowledge and the way he cared about everyone he knew. He was the first to send flowers, to write a letter out of concern, to comfort, to joke, to tell a great story or play a practical joke. He was as Mayor DiGirolamo said, “one-of-a-kind.” He is missed. And yet he lives on in memories of his families, his businesses and the public good that he created. He loved Bucks County and we love him.
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Bob Waite is the editor of Bucks County Magazine and has had the privilege of being one of Mike Etzrodt’s friends.