Leon Kaplan, 90; ran furniture design and manufacturing store
From his mid 70s to age 90, Leon Kaplan could be seen walking each summer along Route 5 near his summer vacation home in Maine.
"People would honk at him," his son John of Stoughton recalled. "They would stop and say: 'Good to see you. Good to see you're still alive.' "
Like his mother, who lived to be 100 years old, Mr. Kaplan loved going out and being seen, his son said.
"He loved pushing himself," his son said. "He really wanted to live, and he lived. He lived a zestful life. He would drive up for the day to Maine for a lobster."
Mr. Kaplan, a second-generation furniture designer and builder who supplied pieces to the White House during the Truman administration, died Nov. 30 at the Lasell House in Newton after a brief illness. He was 90.
Mr. Kaplan, the youngest of five children, was born in Dorchester and grew up in Newton. He spent one year at Boston Latin and graduated from Newton High School in 1935.
After a postgraduate year at Worcester Academy, he graduated from Yale University in 1940.
He attended the Parsons School of Design in New York, before taking over his father's design and manufacture business, Kaplan Furniture, with his brother Simon and nephew David.
The company moved from Cambridge to Medford in 1960.
Mr. Kaplan left the manufacturing business in 1972 and launched a furniture showroom near Fenway Park. He later moved to the Boston Design Center to accommodate his expanding business. After several mergers, the company changed its name to Beacon Hill Furniture.
During the Harry S. Truman administration, the White House used several of Mr. Kaplan's pieces. "They used a lot of our furniture in their personal quarters," said Mr. Kaplan's nephew, David, who had worked with him since 1957. "Leon got a tour of the White House."
In his later years, Mr. Kaplan took several history and current events courses at Lasell College and was involved in managing an interior design committee at Lasell House, where he later died.
At Lasell, Mr. Kaplan preferred taking the courses with the college kids, said his daughter Susan of Stoughton. "All of us would just marvel. He would longhand his papers, and then we would type them. He never stopped learning."
Mr. Kaplan met Harriet (Zintz), his wife of 68 years, in the eighth grade at the Devotion School in Brookline.
The pair used to roller skate together and were supposed to go horseback riding, but Mr. Kaplan canceled the date when Harriet cheated in marbles.
"Needless to say, they managed to work things out," said his son-in-law, Ed Carpenter of Stoughton.
John Kaplan called his parents "very well matched."
"They had a very deep love," he said. "It's hard to talk about him without talking about her."
Mr. Kaplan frequently vacationed with his wife in Maine.
"They've been going up to vacation in Lake Kezar, Maine, for over 60 years," Carpenter said. "This past summer, he and Harriet spent two months up there."
Family members described Mr. Kaplan as an honest man known for his integrity and intelligence.
"Growing up, he was a man of a few words," his daughter Susan said. "You always knew how he felt about you. Actions spoke much more than words."
In addition to his wife, daughter, son, nephew, and son-in-law, Mr. Kaplan leaves eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Services have been held. 