Sign painter remembered
Emery J. Boor was known for many things, including his sense of humor. Boor, the area’s premier sign painter for decades, died Wednesday at the age of 95.
His family and friends remember him as a craftsman, artist and as a man who “liked to talk,’ his son, Jerry Boor, said.
“He started painting when he was 13, working in different sign shops around Uniontown as a young boy,’ Jerry Boor said.
At that time, he added, “there was no school to go to to learn the craft. Back in that era, you started as an apprentice, worked your way up to journeyman and then became a craftsman. He learned from different painters in the area.’
Boor signed each one of his projects, “E.J. Boor,’ his son said, for at least two reasons.
“One was name recognition. He always said you have to keep your name out there. Someone might look at it, like it and wonder who painted it.
“And, when I was in art school, we were told that if you didn’t sign your work, you were ashamed of it. Dad always signed his work,’ he said.
Emery Boor continued working until he was 83. Jerry Boor said his father suffered in the past few years from weakness in his legs, requiring him to use a wheelchair.
“But at 95, he lived a full life,’ he added.
Al Moran, Emery Boor’s son-in-law, also remembers the painter. Moran, who worked as a reporter for the Herald-Standard from 1975 to 1980, said, “Emery was one of the most liked and well-known people in town years ago. His signs are still on the sides of buildings, office doors, truck panels, etc. He’ll live on for a long time.’
Citing Boor’s artistic temper, Moran said, “He always signed his work, taking pride in his job like Rembrandt or Monet.
“I remember him taking a milk crate with his paints and brushes to various office sites, turning it upside down and using it for a seat as he painted names on office doors… by hand, while others used pre-formed letters. He was a true artist indeed,’ Moran said.
“He wouldn’t have done anything else,’ Jerry Boor said of his father. “That’s (painting) what he always wanted to do and never worked at any other job, except for his time in the service.’
His son also remembers Emery Boor as “a person who was very humorous and liked to talk. In fact, he’d talk to anybody he saw on the street. He was a very outgoing person.’
Some of Emery Boor’s sayings, which his family called “Boorisms,’ show his common sense and approach to life, they said.
“I remember one he used to say. ‘If it’s mechanical, it can go wrong,” his son said. “That was the kind of stuff he said.’
Jerry Boor, who with his son, Jerry, continue the Boor Sign Co. business, said many of his father’s works exist.
“Most of the wall work in Uniontown was his,’ he said, explaining wall work is the advertising signs painted on the side of buildings.
“Other signs have faded or deteriorated. He also painted a lot of signs for the State and Manos theaters,’ he said.
Jerry Boor said his father worked long hours and as his three children grew, included them in the family business.
“He’d have us clean brushes, sweep up and do other things in the shop,’ which was once attached to the Boor home in Uniontown.
“Dad also did most of the billboards around here, maybe 50 or 60 of them. When I was in junior high school and high school, during the summer, we’d have to go out and scrape the billboards down and then repaint them.’
Regis Amend, a Uniontown businessman and friend of Emery Boor, said he first met Emery Boor in the 1940s. “He was a sign painter and we had a grocery store. I didn’t meet him again until the 1960s’ through their common interest in creating miniature circuses.
Amend belongs to the national Circus Model Builders, and so did Boor.
“We have about 1,500 members throughout the U.S. and we have different branches. Emery, being a sign painter, made beautiful circus wagons. I used to pick him up and take him to the meetings,’ he said.
He recalled Boor’s humor.
“One day about 10 or 12 years ago, he was explaining to me how a man told him to put two coats of sealer on a wagon wheel. He said, ‘I gave it two coats and a pair of pants,” Amend said.
“We were talking another time about making moulds. He said, ‘I’m a good mould maker. I just put it in the refrigerator for a week and a half and when it comes out, its mould.”
“He was probably the best sign painter of his time,’ Amend said.
Jerome W. Shell Funeral Home, Uniontown, is handling funeral services.
In addition to Jerry, two other children survive Boor: Robert Lee Boor of Tucson, Ariz., and Pamela Jane Moran of Amherst, Ohio. Also surviving him are three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
His wife, Eleanor Jane Whetsel Boor, preceded him in death.