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Richard Brush, connected to longtime East Rochester company Sentry Safe has died

Richard Brush, whose family founded Sentry Safe, died Thursday at age 91.
WXXI
Richard Brush, whose family founded Sentry Safe, died Thursday at age 91.

A Rochesterian with deep roots in the area’s business, philanthropic and cultural activities has died.

Richard Brush, who had ties to one of the region's oldest companies, Sentry Safe, died Thursday at the age of 91. He was a former chairman and president of the company.

The East Rochester company had roots that date back to 1930, and it was Richard Brush’s father, John Brush Sr., who became sole owner of the company in 1943.

In the early 1950s, his sons, Richard and John Jr. joined the business, which then became the John D. Brush & Co. Inc. Their brother Robert joined the company later on.

The third generation included John Brush’s grandsons, Doug and Jim Brush.

The company later became Sentry Safe, employing hundreds of people. It was sold to Master Lock in 2014.

In 2016, Sentry closed its doors in the Rochester area as part of a move announced the previous year, when its corporate parent, Master Lock, said it would be moving the Sentry operations to plants in Mexico and Wisconsin.

Jim Brush remembers his uncle as someone who really cared about his employees.

“They were paramount and he expressed it in many, many ways. We started a profit sharing program years before it was fashionable to do profit sharing. And it was a very generous profit sharing program. We held onto employees, we had very few that would leave the company, it was just a great place to work and a lot of that was due to Dick and his attitude about people," Brush said.

Richard Brush was very supportive of  the arts, including The Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester. Also, the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University was named after him. Brush was a 1952 graduate of St. Lawrence. He was also a Navy veteran, who served in Korea.

Richard Brush is one of the original members of WXXI, supporting the station since 1966. In 1991 he was honored as WXXI’s Associate of the Year, and was an Honorary Trustee of WXXI.

A service celebrating the life of Richard Brush is planned for Wednesday, September 22 at the Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Avenue in Rochester NY, from 1 – 4 PM. 

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.