Iconic Des Plaines businessman Frank Pesche dies at 88
The owner of one of Des Plaines' most iconic businesses, Pesche's Flower & Garden Center, has died.
Frank Pesche was a fixture at the garden center, having grown up in a house on the property as one of 11 children who worked in the family business. Employees said he was at the garden center seven days a week up until three years ago.
"He was here from open to close," said Claudia Soto, one of the store managers. "He was very hard working, and he set the tone for everyone who worked here."
He died Saturday at the age of 88.
It was his father, Fred Pesche, who started the business in 1923, when he purchased 5 acres in Des Plaines. He and his wife, Helen, brought their young family from Evanston, and as the family expanded, they all pitched in.
As one of only two sons in the family, Frank Pesche and his older brother, Fred, worked closely with their father, doing jobs ranging from working in the greenhouses to fixing the machinery.
During the Depression, the Pesches raised cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, which they sold from a farm stand and delivered to local businesses. In the spring, they sold bedding plants and cut flowers, and it was that end of the business that eventually blossomed.
During the 1940s, when Des Plaines became known as the 'City of Roses' for its many greenhouses, Pesche's carved out a niche for itself by growing carnations and later chrysanthemums.
Family members remember cutting as many as 5,000 carnations twice a week to take to Chicago's wholesale markets.
During World War II, Pesche's Flowers employed POWs held at Camp Pine, a little-known German POW camp located along the Des Plaines River. The prisoners helped pick and deliver carnations.
After the war, the family expanded the retail flower shop to include a grocery store, which Frank Pesche ran for the next 30 years.
In more recent years, Pesche was the expert on vegetable gardening, honed over his lifetime of gardening.
"Tomatoes were his specialty," Soto added.
Pesche's son Chris now runs the business. He is the third generation to tend the garden center, nursery and flower shop, on the same acreage where his father and grandfather grew the family business.
Besides his son Chris, Pesche is survived by his wife, Mary, and children Gary, Ron (Sue), Mark (Christine), Ron, David and Bill, as well as nine grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at G.L. Hills Funeral Home, 745 Graceland Ave., before a 11 a.m. Mass on Thursday at St. Mary Catholic Church, 749 Pearson St., both in Des Plaines.