Menswear business was tailored for him

Retirement fits Stuart Shaines like a well-tailored suit.

"You only get one chance in a life to go out of business, and I want to do it right," said Shaines, who is retiring after 52 years in the menswear business.

On a recent weekend, as bargain hunters shuffled through marked-down shirts and racks of suits and coats at Stuart Shaines Menswear, the 77-year-old haberdasher looked back on a career that began in 1954.

"I don't want to spend a lifetime reminiscing, but I have plenty of material," said the affable gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard and courtly manners.

After enduring a second heart surgery earlier this year, he decided to retire to spend more time with his 10 children and 10 grandchildren, who are spread across the country.

While shoppers pawed through discounted cuff links, sweaters, and shaving brushes, the memories flooded back.

"It's a people business," Shaines said, "and while I don't remember all their names, I remember every one of my customers."

Among his past customers have been "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown and Air Force Brigadier General Jack J. Catton Jr.

"A fellow came down from Maine last week," Shaines said. "He comes every five years to update his wardrobe. He said, 'Where am I going to go now?' I couldn't tell him. All the local menswear retailers are gone. There's nobody left to take our place."

The store will close when its inventory is sold, about the first of the year, he figures.

Times are changing, Shaines said.

"Pride of appearance is disappearing from a man's concern," he said. "You used to wear a hat, shirt, and a tie when you went out."

Shaines sells only fitted clothes, because "a gentleman is made in all shapes and sizes." One of his past customers bought two size 72 suits.

Dressing well is important, Shaines said. "When you dress well, you think well and perform well. Just because you put on a shirt and tie doesn't make you bright, but it helps."

The retiring haberdasher sprinkles his conversation with aphorisms: "You never know what might happen; the light at the end of a tunnel might be an oncoming freight. There are no strangers in life, just friends you haven't met." Cliches, he admits, but he believes them.

His office above the showroom is filled with boxes of books, photographs, and papers. "The clutter of a lifetime," he said, "and everything holds a memory."

Would he have done anything differently? "I've made my mistakes," he said, "but I don't deal in couldas, wouldas, or shouldas."

Shaines was raised in Portsmouth. As a boy, he worked in a shoe store his father operated in Dover. "He instilled in me a work ethic," Shaines said. "You worked until the work was done. Working a half a day meant 12 hours."

After graduating from the University of New Hampshire, Shaines served in the Air Force.

When the shop beside his father's became available in 1954, he decided to enter the men's clothing business, though he had no experience in the field. Three months later, he was recalled by the Air Force to serve during the Korean War.

While serving his second stint in the Air Force, he got the chance to learn about the business by working part time in a men's store in Dayton, Ohio. He also earned a master's degree in business administration at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

After his military service, he returned to his Dover shop. "And from there the baby grew," he said.

At one time, he had stores in eight communities, including Newington, Manchester, Dover, Durham, and Portsmouth. He was doing more than $2 million a year in business in the early 1970s.

The Portsmouth store is the only one remaining. Shaines says he lost the others during "the bank failures of the 1980s."

Shaines was involved in several other business ventures. He was a co-owner of the Viking Queen and Viking Sun tour boats, based in Portsmouth, and developer of the Tucker's Cove community in Portsmouth. He was a University of New Hampshire trustee for five years, and mayor of Dover from 1960 to 1963.

He is now converting the building that houses his shop into condominiums. "The projects keep me young," he said.

He estimates that he has employed about 600 people over the years, many of them UNH students who worked part time. "All wonderful people," he said.

Micah Tasker, who lives in Milton, worked part time for Shaines in the 1970s and '80s and has returned to help out in the final days.

"Stuart is a man who inspired loyalty," said Tasker, who trains salespeople in the car industry. "He always treated his employees as if they were as important as his customers, and that's pretty rare in this day and age."

Downstairs, Dick Martuscello, who has been with Shaines for 47 years, helped Mo Dichard of Dover select some clothing.

"I'm going to be disappointed to see him go," said Dichard, a sales manager for National Gypsum. "For this kind of service and merchandise, I will probably have to go to Boston now."

Martuscello, 68, said the business has lost a bit of its appeal.

"There was a time when it was exciting to help a man dress appropriately, but people are not as demanding as they were," he said.

"Years ago, men would argue if a pair of pants was a quarter-inch too short or too long. Now they don't even notice."

He said many customers have written him letters since they heard the shop was closing, and dozens have dropped in to say goodbye.

Martuscello said, "It'll still be hard to put the key in the door the last day."

As for the owner's plans for his looming retirement? Playing with his grandchildren and writing a memoir with a sense of humor.