CINCINNATI – Paul R. Fricke, a former store manager at Rike’s department store in Dayton who later founded the Cooks’Wares kitchenware retailer, died Thursday, Aug. 12, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 66. Fricke, born and raised in Philadelphia, had spent a lifetime in retailing, starting with a part-time sales position at 17. His career included management and merchandising positions with Lit Brothers, a Philadelphia department store retailer, until its closing in 1977. He joined Federated Department Stores in 1977 as a store manager with Rike’s in downtown Dayton. He left Federated in 1988 as a senior vice president of Lazarus. Paul and his wife, Mary, founded Cooks’Wares in 1992 with a store in suburban Cincinnati. In 2002, they opened a second store in Springboro, in the Marketplace at Settlers’ Walk along Ohio 741. Survivors, in addition to his wife, include a son Steven, daughter Sharon, two granddaughters and two sisters. The family has scheduled a visitation at 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16, at Terwilligers Lodge in the Cincinnati suburb of Montgomery, followed by a 4:30 p.m. memorial service.
