bucky stein
B Y Mary Catherine Ballou
PHOTO BY Allison Potter
BUCKY STEIN, NOW RETIRED IN WILMINGTON, WAS AN ENTREPRENEUR
WHO GREW A TIRE STORE IN JACKSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA INTO
TARGET TIRE, A MULTISTATE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK. He was elected to
the North Carolina Tire Dealers Association Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Tire Industry
Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
While Stein enjoyed success in business, the theater stands as a driving passion through-out
his life.
“Good theater gives me a feeling of empathy, and a good actor makes me understand
what he’s trying to project, even though it’s unspoken,” he says.
Growing up in Philadelphia, he fell in
love with theater when he was just 14 years
old, when his middle school English teacher
recited Shakespeare to the class. Thus began
his interest in attending Saturday matinee
shows, which he did once he turned 16.
FAVORITE THING
The Theater
Stein attended an extensive number of stage performances by legendary actors, includ-ing
Laurette Taylor in Tennessee Williams’s “The Glass Menagerie,” Paul Robeson and Uta
Hagen in “Othello,” and Claire Bloom in “A Doll’s House.” While stationed with the Coast
Guard in New York during the summer of 1945, Stein “saw everything,” including the inau-gural
production of “Carousel” and “The Wind is Ninety” with Kirk Douglas.
The experience of attending a play “gives you an idea of how talented people are,” he says.
“Even when my kids were little, I’d find time to take them to New York on long weekends.”
Stein recalls meeting legendary director and playwright Neil Simon, who died in late
August, at a black tie event in Durham.
“I told him that probably nobody here has seen as many of your plays as I have,” Stein
says, “and he said I was wrong, because he
had seen all of them.”
CLAIM TO FAME
Over the years, Stein has cultivated a deep
appreciation for the art of acting.
Entrepreneur turned
“A great actor,” he explains, “is capable of
baring their soul.”
Wilmington philanthropist
A favorite is Paul Newman, whom Stein
describes as having “hazel-green eyes you
could see from the stage.” Stein also appreciates the actor’s well-known charitable organiza-tion,
Newman’s Own.
“He gave every dime to charity,” Stein says.
That resonates with Stein, who is one of Wilmington’s active philanthropists. As a lifelong
advocate of the arts, his charitable works include supporting Thalian Hall Center for the
Performing Arts, Chamber Music Wilmington, and Dram Tree Shakespeare. He also serves
as one of the founders of the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival.
Stein’s love of theater transformed his life and consequently led him to transform the life of
the community. While his favorite thing is not a physical object, it embodies a form of artistic
expression that captures and reveals the core emotions and range of experiences that comprise
the human condition, rendering it understandable to audiences throughout time.
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WBM december 2018