Downtown legacy

Written by Heather Spangler

Photos by Reggie Morrow

Bill Nusser sits at a patio table at Atlas in downtown Iowa City, enjoying a sunny lunch. While he eats, a steady stream of familiar faces stops to say hello. There are fellow downtown business owners, lawyers, politicians, a friend’s daughter and her baby. He even spots his father-in-law, Willard “Sandy” Boyd. Nusser greets each of them warmly.

“I really value the people and the businesses that make up downtown,” he said. “So few of us agree, but most of us get along and I like that.”

Nusser, owner of Hands Jewelers on East Washington Street, grew up in downtown Iowa City. The business has been in Iowa City for 154 years and in his family for four generations.

“I used to skip high school and to come work downtown,” Nusser said. He started work at the shop in the summer of 1969, when he was 15 and the downtown was in the beginning of a renewal period.

Nusser, the only son in a family with three sisters, recalls worn storefronts, but also a sense that the downtown was a “magical” place.

“Everything was downtown — department stores, drug stores, shoe stores, a seed store. I’d walk by and see little chicks in the window,” Nusser said. “There were five movie theaters. There wasn’t a thing you couldn’t buy.”

Nusser, now 54, said he knew back in 1969 that he’d always be in the family jewelry business.

“I walked in and (store manager) Richard Horne handed me a broom and said ‘You’re going to work,’” Nusser said. “I loved it and from that moment I knew that’s what I had to do.”

Nusser’s path to owning Hands wasn’t simple, despite his family ties. He left Iowa City after graduating from University High School and attended the University of Michigan. While he was away, Nusser found work at other jewelry stores to pay the bills.

After college, Nusser said he “missed Iowa terribly,” so he moved to the Quad Cities to work in one of his father, Bill Nusser Sr.’s, satellite locations.

But the lifestyle there didn’t agree with him. He saw opulence and waste in the affluent crowd and missed the youth and diversity of Iowa City.

“I remember looking at a bottle of Scotch I’d had too much of the night before and thinking, ‘If I stay here, I’ll drink myself to death. And I want a different kind of life,’” Nusser said.

So he wrote a letter to his father and announced that he was moving back to Iowa City, whether or not there was a job for him there.

Although he was again living in Iowa City, his father sent him to work in the stores outside of town. Back then, there were two stores in Iowa City, two in Cedar Rapids, one in Clinton and the Quad Cities store.

“I was getting pretty frustrated not being able to work in Iowa City,” Nusser said. “I was the best sales person they had in the organization and I couldn’t see why he was squandering me in these stupid stores and, to this day, I still don’t know.”

Nusser said he and his father didn’t always see eye to eye and Nusser often was impatient for his father to acknowledge his value in the business, but he always respected him.

“My father was, in my eyes, a dynamic, bright, involved person who seemed to be able to move mountains,” Nusser said. “He was a trailblazer in Iowa City and had an amazing concept of what was fair in society that was way ahead of its time. Because of this, he was always at the forefront of change both locally and in the jewelry industry.”

Despite his professional challenges at the time, other things were going well in Nusser’s life: He was falling in love with Betsy Boyd, a woman he knew from elementary school and started dating in 1979.

The pair had been spending every possible moment together for about five weeks when Boyd asked Nusser about his plans. She meant his plans for the weekend, but he mistook the gravity of her question.

“I said, ‘Oh, I think we’ll probably get married, have a couple of kids, a dog and a station wagon,’” Nusser said. “She said, ‘Is that a proposal?’ and I said, ‘I guess it is.’”

So on April 12, 1979, Nusser found himself sweating bullets in his future in-laws’ sunroom. He was waiting for the right time to ask the then-UI president’s permission to marry his daughter after a little over a month of dating.

“President Boyd scared the heck out of me,” Nusser said.

But his fears were unfounded. The Boyds were elated and took Bill and Betsy out for a celebratory dinner that night.

“To be immediately accepted as family was really unbelievable,” Nusser said, describing his in-laws as “fun, funny and loving people.”

Bill and Betsy were married five months later. He describes his wife as his “rock” and “inspiration.”

“Her support has just been the biggest luxury that I have,” he said.

Nusser said he sees their relationship as the perfect “town and gown” mix.

“Hands is the oldest retail business in Iowa City and the Boyds are the University of Iowa,” he said.

One of the most trying personal challenges his wife has helped him through is a battle with alcoholism. Nusser said despite his efforts to return to Iowa City and get away from an unhealthy environment in the Quad Cities, he still eventually struggled with the disease.

“This attempt at a ‘geographical cure’ for what would become — or already was — my alcoholism failed,” Nusser said. “Though I was much happier in Iowa City, I became an alcoholic nonetheless.”

Nusser entered am eight-week residential alcohol treatment program in the Chicago area four years ago and has been sober since.

“It’s the best thing I ever did,” he said of the program. “It was a great opportunity to step away from my life and business and get a perspective on who I really was.”

When Bill Nusser Sr.’s failing health made it difficult for him to run his business, Nusser took over as owner 18 years ago. He purchased the Hands building on July 30, 1998.

As owner, Nusser closed all of the stores other than the downtown location.

He said he loves his downtown business because of the talented people who work for him and the customers who frequent his store.

“Relationships are what make everything work,” he said.

Nora Lee Balmer has been a loyal Hands customer since she moved to Iowa City in 1958 and said she sees Nusser as a “kind, funny” business owner who will do anything to make his customers happy.

In fact, he even made a house call for her once when she couldn’t work the clasp on a bracelet her husband bought her.

“He had to come over and get me out of it,” she said with a laugh.

Balmer said she’s also noticed that Nusser gives back to his community.

He’s president of the board of MECCA, was a founding member of the Hancher Guild, and has served on the board of the Ronald McDonald House, the Johnson County American Heart Association and the Preucil School of Music. He’s also active with Team Hands, a volunteer group made up of Hands employees, and visits local schools to teach youngsters about gems.

Nusser’s youngest sister, Anne Rizzo, who earned her MBA at UI and runs the back-end operations for Hands, said his giving nature is genetic.

“He got that from his parents,” she said. “Both our mother and father were very committed to making sure the community was supported.”

Nusser said giving back to the community he loves is easy.

“I’ve been such a fortunate person,” he said. “I live in the ideal city and every one I know, I love. I know it sounds Pollyannaish, but it’s the truth. I’m excited about my life.”

The Nusser legacy in downtown Iowa City likely will continue. His two sons, Ross, 22, and Charlie, 19, have expressed interest in the family business.

Nusser said his sons have different, complementary skills.

“There’s plenty of room for both of them,” he said.