Dale (left) and Harry Coffman, owner/operators of the former Ben Franklin store and longtime Chamber of Commerce members, will be inducted into the Holton/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame for 2018. (Submitted photo)

Hall of Fame salutes Harry and Dale Coffman

Longtime Holton resident Harry Coffman was a quiet man, according to his son Dale’s widow, Doris Coffman Young.

“He did many good things for people that he didn’t let anybody know he was doing,” Young said. “When somebody wanted to start a business, he would help them do it but he never accepted any glory. People never knew anything about it. He wasn’t a person to boast about anything.”

His son, Dale, who joined the family business at Ben Franklin on the east side of Holton’s Town Square after returning from World War II, was also a quiet person, but he was also a people person who was eager to follow in his father’s footsteps, she added.

The Coffmans, father and son, kept a five-and-dime store going on the east side of the Square for more than a century and stayed involved in the community, in addition to being actively involved with community organizations during their respective lifetimes.

For their dedication to making the Holton community a better place, Harry Coffman and Dale Coffman will be inducted into the Holton/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame this February ― an honor that both Young and Teresa Rowell, Dale and Doris’ daughter, were pleased to note.

“Everybody loved those two men,” Rowell said of her father and grandfather. “They were just good people.”

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The Holton Recorder

109 W. Fourth St.
Holton, KS 66436
Phone: 785-364-3141
 

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