Edward William Weintraut, 86, longtime jeweler and watchmaker

FOR ED WEINTRAUT, it was always "later."

"He was always putting off what he could do today for himself with the plan that he would do it later," said his son Steven Weintraut.

"Travel, see the world," Steve would urge his father as he kept working well beyond the normal retirement age.

Sure, Ed would say, "later."

Later, of course, never came for this dedicated, hardworking watchmaker, a fixture on Philadelphia's Jewelers Row for more than 50 years.

Edward William Weintraut, who his son said could never "not work," died Monday. He was a few days shy of his 87th birthday and lived in Cherry Hill.

Ed was called the "boy jeweler" because he started working at his trade at age 16, and because he always looked far younger than his actual age.

Well into his 80s, Ed arrived daily at his shop and office at 735 Walnut St., driving his Grand Marquis from his home in Cherry Hill.

He estimated that he repaired 40,000 watches in his career. Many he worked on at home because there were too many distractions at the shop to get much work done.

Ed was mostly self-taught. He was a teenager working as a box boy for a store when he was offered a chance to train as a store manager. Ed turned down the offer. Even then, he knew he wanted to be a watchmaker.

He became an apprentice at a Germantown jewelry store before joining the Army and serving with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

After his service, he rented space for his shop on Walnut Street. When he learned that the building was to be sold, he negotiated a sale with the owner and took it over.

He sold watches as well as repaired them, and also sold jewelry. Eventually, he ran a catalog business that included appliances, from toasters to TVs.

"It was a family affair," his son said, "with all of us hunkered down in the basement of our house at various times of the year, affixing mailing labels on large catalogs to mail out to the local community."

Although Jewelers Row had a large population of Jewish merchants, Ed actually was a Catholic of German and Pennsylvania Dutch lineage.

"He fit right into the part, though, as he picked up a lot of Yiddish vocabulary and had fun with his role in the local business community," his son said.

"Everyone seemed to know him. As I grew up, it seemed that wherever I went, when someone heard my oddly spelled last name, it would be common for someone to come up to me and ask if I was his son, and it would turn out that he fixed their watch, or sold a family member an engagement ring, or something else along those lines."

The Inquirer's Amy S. Rosenberg described the problems Ed had to deal with in an article in February 2013, including people with stopped watches that they didn't realize had to be wound.

"I would have to do this every day?" one woman asked incredulously about her late husband's windup watch, Rosenberg wrote.

"Or you can just call me for the time," Ed said, exhibiting the sardonic sense of humor he displayed at times.

Several years ago, Ed's wife, the former Dorothy Moffet, developed Alzheimer's disease and had to be moved into a nursing facility.

Despite work and other activities, Ed managed to sit with his wife in the nursing home every day.

"Feeding her, singing to her, kissing her, for years, for years and years. Nonstop. Every single day," Steve said.

In recent years, Ed developed his own physical problems, most of which he persisted in overcoming. But one day, he fell and fractured an elbow.

"We were told he was likely to pass a few weeks ago," Steve said, "but my wife and I visited him, and my wife gave him the biggest hug you could ever imagine, and held him tightly, and let him know how loved he was.

"Like out of a science-fiction movie, that almost magically injected him with life, and he became much more communicative and responsive, and we were able to share some conversation with him for a time."

"That was a wonderful visit," Steve's wife, Denise, said.

Besides his wife and son, Ed is survived by three other sons, Edward J. Weintraut, Robert Weintraut and J. Neil Weintraut; a daughter, Cynthia Weintraut; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Services: 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Inglesby & Sons Funeral Home, Pennsauken, N.J.