By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Joseph Hetzer, retired superintendent of Kirk & Blum's Cincinnati manufacturing plant, died Tuesday at Myrtle Beach Manor in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The former Mount Healthy resident was 92.

He was born in Cincinnati in 1911 to Conrad and Elizabeth Mueller Hetzer. At 16 he got a job in the drafting department of Kirk & Blum, an industrial sheet metal manufacturer. He worked 46 years for the company before retiring as plant superintendent in 1973.

Mr. Hetzer experienced hearing loss early in his adulthood due to the noise levels in the factory. "I think that affected his life considerably from a social point of view," his son William of Myrtle Beach said. "He was an introverted man. He was not a member - not a joiner. He was strictly a homebody - a family man."

But "his IQ was up around 160 or so."

Like many of those who lived through the Great Depression, Mr. Hetzer was fiscally conservative. And his favorite pastime was "fixing on his house - remodeling, building garages, tearing walls down," his son said. "He was constantly maintaining the home and doing all kinds of special things for it."

Mr. Hetzer had a high school diploma but wanted more for his three sons. "He was bound and determined that his sons were going to get a college education and they all did," his son said.

And he did his duty by his parents, taking care of them in their waning years.

After he retired, Mr. Hetzer moved from Mount Healthy to Columbia, S.C., His wife of more than 60 years, Gladys E. Maier Hetzer, died in 1999, and he moved to Myrtle Beach to be nearer two of his sons.

Mr. Hetzer was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Mount Healthy.

In addition to William, survivors include sons Joseph C. Hetzer of Myrtle Beach and David R. Hetzer of Centerville; a brother, John Hetzer of Bridgetown; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Services were held. Burial was at Bush River Memorial Gardens in Columbia.