Entenmann's retiree Charles Urban, 81, dies

Charles Urban, who oversaw baking at Entenmann's as it grew from a family-owned regional concern to a national one, churning out nearly 4 million danishes, crumb cakes and pies a week, died Wednesday at Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson. He was 81.

The cause was cancer, said a son-in-law, Henry Ellis.

Urban started washing pots at the Bay Shore bakery in 1958, in his late 20s. By 35 he was plant manager at the 5-acre facility, which baked desserts destined for supermarket shelves across the Northeast. By his early 40s, he had risen to vice president of manufacturing for the company, which expanded to Florida and the West Coast. He retired in 1987 after 30 years with the company.

He "helped automate the company and bring it nationwide," said Frank McNamee, the company's former head of human resources.

That meant tanker trucks filled with liquid eggs and five 40,000- pound shipments of flour a day.

When it came to baking, conveyor belts carried automatically portioned batter and dough into tunnel ovens 20 feet wide and 100 feet long.

Urban had no clear favorite among the roughly 140 confections under production while he was with Entenmann's but was known to enjoy the all-butter pound cake. "He loved his pound cake," McNamee said.

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Urban was born in Wyoming, Pa., but grew up in Astoria, Queens. His wife, Roberta, who died 12 years ago, was a neighbor there, and they dated as teenagers.

A boater and golfer much of his life, Urban, who lived in Port Jefferson, was slowed by arthritis in recent years and walked with a cane. But last summer, when a granddaughter, Dana Ellis, asked him to join her in Italy, where she had been studying, he went.

With Ellis, granddaughters Laura Urban and Amy Ellis, and great-granddaughter Cara Wood, he visited Florence and the Vatican. He swam in the Mediterranean Sea.

Two weeks later, he was diagnosed with leukemia, the family said.

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He is survived by daughters Nancy Ellis of Mount Sinai and Janet Wood of Middle Island; a son, Richard Urban of Oakdale; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

There will be a wake at Bryant Funeral Home in East Setauket on Monday from 7 to 9 p.m., and on Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. The funeral will be held at Infant Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Port Jefferson on Wednesday at 10 a.m.