"[In 1946] 'Mr. G.,' as he was called, was 67. His store, three stories high, was a modern marvel of polished wood and mirror, balconies and sliding glass doors.... [His] specialty... was fitting shoes; Mrs. G's forte was ladies' hats....[Their] daughter Muriel was in charge of promotion and display. When new folks moved to town, she wrote letters of welcome. These were the personal flourishes that gave Ginsberg's its special flair -- and some of them spun into legends: the story of the barefoot boy Mose hauled into his store and outfitted for a free pair of shoes -- of the veteran who came in looking to buy a suit and wound up with a free one in return for his service to his country. 
"'He who serves best, profits most,' Ginsberg tells his interviewer in 1969. 'You've got to work, and do something for someone else.'... [Mrs. G.] organized the benefits, visited the veterans in nearby hospitals with a carpetbag bulging with jellied fruit slices, sold the cheesecakes at the local carnival and hung curtains in the basement of the synagogue so the Girl Scouts, who were using it, would feel more at home.... [Mr. G.] liked to get things started, then sit back and let them roll, like the Chamber of Commerce, the local Red Cross chapter, the synagogue and the hospital auxiliary. Not once in 35 years did he miss a meeting of the Rotary Club - but he wouldn't serve as president.
"'Everything but politics,' he says 'Politics and business don't mix.'... [But] there were other things he wouldn't do. Drive when he could walk. Hunt or fish for sport. Go back to Europe, ever. Speak publicly if he could avoid it...."
Mose Ginsberg died in 1974 at age 95. He did not go unrecognized in his long life of service to his community, receiving numerous citations from veterans' organizations, Rotarians, the New York State Council of Retail Merchants and the Distinguished Achievement Certificate from Washington for founding the Tupper Lake Chapter of the American Red Cross, as well as being honored by local and regional organizations. Ginsberg's store did not fare as well. In spite of customer loyalty it was unable to compete with more fashionable retail stores. Tupper Lake was no longer the same thriving boom town it was in the early part of the century. Ginsberg's Department Store was finally sold to a young couple from Michigan who ran it a few years before it closed its doors in 1988. An Adirondack institution, Ginsberg's was a visible tribute to a remarkable family for ninety years.
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