Fred's great-great-grandfather on Gram's side. Howard Phillip Meyer, known as H.P.
Born ~1886, North Braddock, Pennsylvania. Came west and founded Imperial Hardware Company in El Centro in 1908. The business ran three generations of the Heald-Meyer family and eventually reached nine store locations in the Imperial Valley and Yuma before closing in 2025 — the same day Phil died. H.P. also founded the Howard P. Meyer Charitable Trust, a family-managed charitable fund whose primary institutional knowledge was held by Phil.
The most important thing H.P. did for the next generation: after WWII, when Gramp had to restart his medical practice from nothing, H.P. lent him $5,000 to set up his El Centro office. That loan made the next generation of El Centro medical service possible.
I was about five when H.P. died. I don’t remember him.