Salvatore "Sam" Viviano

1934 - 2019

(News story) Salvatore "Sam" Viviano, who built a Toledo florist business into Ohio's largest and was active in both his industry and the Toledo business community, died Monday in St. Luke's Hospital. He was 85.

Frank Viviano, the son to whom he sold Bartz Viviano Flowers & Gifts in 1996, said Mr. Viviano died of internal bleeding for which he'd been admitted to the hospital a day earlier. He had been partially paralyzed by a stroke in 2014.

After working for his father's florist business in Detroit, Mr. Viviano moved his growing family to Toledo in 1964 when the opportunity to buy the Bartz florist shop, then on Central Avenue, arose. After some initial struggles, some shrewd business decisions and a fortunate move in response to a construction project got what became Bartz Viviano rolling.

The local chain grew eventually to six locations, served by a central distribution center and design shop first located on Canton Street at downtown Toledo's edge. That facility has been at Bartz Viviano's main store at 4505 Secor Rd. since its 1987 opening.

The younger Mr. Viviano said his father enjoyed being in a business that was involved in people's celebrations - "seeing customers at all of the important times of their lives" - while at the same time he pushed, with some success, to make flowers a more routine purchase for local households the way they are in Europe.

"Knowing the product he was selling made people happy," even if at times of bereavement, was very satisfying, the son said.

Bartz Viviano also established Maumee Valley Wholesale Florist Supply, which sold flower pots and other floral accessories to its own shops and other florists. That was not warmly received by other local floral wholesalers who, according to a Blade article in 1978, persuaded some manufacturers not to sell to Maumee Valley.

Local retail florsts came on board, however, when Bartz Viviano started up a cooperative under which its warehouse became a sorting hub, with individual florists sending their trucks over twice per day and transferring flower deliveries into outbound trucks dedicated to specific parts of the Toledo area. Mr. Viviano told The Blade the idea was rooted in arrangements his father had made during World War II-era fuel rationing.

Born Feb. 6, 1934, in Detroit, to Frank and Elizabeth Viviano, he graduated from Georgetown University in Washington after transferring from Michigan State University. He and his wife, Ellie - whom he had met at an MSU fraternity party before his transfer - married a month after their respective graduations.

While moving into an unfamiliar city created difficulty for Mr. Viviano, he made a crucial decision to move to Secor Road near Sylvania Avenue when the widening of Central Avenue swallowed up all but two of the parking spaces at the old Bartz shop, The Blade reported. In 1970, the first full year after the move in which he added his own name to that of Bartz, sales rose 48 percent.

Mr. Viviano also made a key deal to become the exclusive floral supplier to Toledo-area Kroger stores. His company's late-1970s acquisition of Glauser's Flowers in Northwood not only added a sixth retail location to Bartz Viviano; it also came with 16,000 square feet of greenhouses.

While Kroger eventually cut out the middlemen for its floral departments, Mr. Viviano "was instrumental in introducing Kroger to the concept of selling flowers," his son said.

Similarly, while Bartz Viviano's roster of brick-and-mortar stores has shrunk from its peak, "we have a more robust online business than we did back then," Frank Viviano said.

The opening of a store in Waterville last year marked "a return to home of sorts," as Mr. Viviano raised his family in Waterville before moving to West Toledo after a divorce. By that time, the company was in the charge of Mr. Viviano's grandson, also named Frank, who had acquired it the year before.

Mr. Viviano was elected president of the Southwyck Shopping Center Merchants' Association in 1972 and to the board of trustees of what was then the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce in 1980.

"I was saddened to hear of Mr. Viviano's passing," Wendy Gramza, president and chief executive of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday. "He was a great supporter of our local business community and a long-time member of our organization."

At separate times in 1985, he was appointed to the American Floral Marketing Council and the board of trustees of the American Academy of Floriculture. That year, as house committee chairman at the Toledo Club, he oversaw remodeling of that facility's main dining room.

Mr. Viviano enjoyed playing gin, bridge, and poker, and in November, 1984, he bowled a 300 game at Imperial Lanes while competing for the Bartz Viviano team in a bowling league.

Mr. Viviano was preceded in death by his ex-wife, Ellie, and a brother and sister. His survivors include a brother, Tony Viviano; sisters, Carme Engel, Tina Chitwood, Pauline Viviano, and Rose Viviano; sons, Frank, Sam, and Matthew Viviano; daughters, Kathy Hauck, Marisa Johnson, and Julie Sofo; 20 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Visitation will begin Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at St. John XXIII Catholic church, 24250 N. Dixie Hwy., Perrysburg, where a funeral Mass will begin at 10:30 a.m. The Walker Funeral Home, Toledo, handled arrangements.

The family suggests tributes to St. Clare Commons.

This is a news story by David Patch. Contact him at dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.