New Haven Independent

It’s hard to know what is the oldest, continually running business in downtown New Haven besides Yale. Surely Star Shoe Repairing Company — where legend has it Eli Yale himself got new heels and buckles (joke!) — is in the running.

The death of much-loved owner Frank Purpora two days before Christmas raised the possibility that the business, begun in 1931 by Frank’s father Mariano, would close.

But not to fear: The tradition will go on. Rich Purpora, Frank’s nephew is carrying on. Even better, he says that he is going to keep the store at 250 College St. exactly as Frank had — beloved sweet-leather smelling disarray and all.

“I’m even keeping up the pictures of the stars — Marie Osmond and all the others — who performed across the street at the Shubert. It’ll be exactly the way Frank had it.”

According to Rich Purpora, his uncle called him to come help out one day in October. “Frank said he felt a little weak. That was unusual because Frank was very strong and loved his job and almost never took off. I came in, and he rested. He said he thought the problem was exhaustion because he was working especially long days since James Walker, his long time partner, had come down with some heart trouble and had gone in September for a rest to his family in North Carolina.” (For a previous story with more history of the business, click here).

It turned out to be not over-work, but leukemia.

“Frank called the next day, I came in, and this time he was having some difficulty breathing. We got him to the hospital. It was acute myeloma, advanced, not good. But he was so dedicated. On Oct. 31, the night before he was to begin chemotherapy, he worked until 10:30, because Jimmy wasn’t there, and Frank wanted to have things ready.”

During visits to the hospital, Rich Purpora said his uncle asked him often if he wanted to take over the business.

“I thought I did, but I wasn’t entirely sure.”

The younger Purpora was the only member of the family, he said, who had taken an interest in the old-fashioned trade and learned it. If Rich Purpora wouldn’t do it, Star’s long run would be over. But the younger Purpora was definitely intrigued.

His very first job, he said, was working with his uncle when he was 14. “Frank taught me the trade, just as Mariano, my grandfather, had taught him,” he said.

But Rich Purpora had gone to work at Middlesex Hospital, he had another career path he could pursue, he was a young man still. “I thought about it,” he said. “But it didn’t take long to come to a decision.

“On my last visit to Frank, I told him I had decided to continue it. He was in poor shape, he had come down in the hospital with pneumonia, but he was able to say to me, ‘Congratulations. I hope everything will work out,’ and those were his last words to me.”

And it has worked out. Rich Purpora said he is in the midst of re-negotiating a new lease in his own name, and the landlord is being very understanding. But nothing else will change. Yale scholars-in-training like Caroline Murphy, a graduate student in 19th century British literature from Boston, will continue to come in to have soles and heels put on her boots; it will take Rich an inordinate amount of time to find them in the piles in back; but that will be okay because in the interval there will be time to look at the star photos and perhaps linger over the memorabilia and instruments from three generations of shoe repairing in New Haven; and perhaps the store will also remind her of a poem by Robert Browning or scenes from Dickens.

“This is Frank’s legacy,” said Rich Purpora. “Nothing changes. And if Jimmy gets better and wants to come back and work again, absolutely.”