Albert Thuro of Greenlawn: Entrepreneur, founder of Thuro Metal Products

Albert Thuro founded Thuro Metal Products in Brentwood. Credit: David Thuro
Albert Thuro always dreamed of owning his own business. And in his long career as an entrepreneur, he owned several.
His son, David Thuro, president of Thuro Metal Products in Brentwood, one of the companies Albert Thuro founded, said his father was always able to move on when things didn’t work out. He started his second business just eight days after the first one failed.
“One of his favorite sayings is, ‘It’s hard to beat a man who never gives up,’’’ David Thuro said of his father. “He had setbacks, but he never let setbacks define him.’’
Albert Thuro, of Greenlawn, died on April 22, from complications due to COVID-19, his son said. He was 85.
Albert Thuro was born on Sept. 10, 1934, in Yugoslavia. When he was 10, his family fled the country because of World War II. They ended up in Munich, Germany, where Albert left school at 14 to apprentice as an auto mechanic.
He became a master machinist, and in 1956, when he was 22, a church in West Hempstead, looking to sponsor a young European immigrant, brought him to the United States. He arrived in New York on Oct. 4, and days later he was hired at a machine shop in New Hyde Park.
Exactly two years after he arrived in the country, on Oct. 4, 1958, he met his wife, Carolyn Voigtlander, at a Sweet 16 party in Rego Park. She was 17, and a senior in high school.
“I was studying German in high school, and the minute I saw him come down the stairs, I knew he was the man for me,’’ Carolyn recalled.
The couple dated for a year before Albert was drafted into the army. They got engaged before he went off to basic training and were married in March 1960. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in March.
After serving two years in Alexandria, Va., Albert moved back to Long Island in 1962, and three years later started his first business, Thuro Machine Tool Works.
He was a glider pilot, his son said, and used to build his own gliders in Germany. On Long Island, he had a private pilot’s license and was part owner of a private plane he flew on Saturdays.
Albert Thuro is survived by his wife, Carolyn, of Greenlawn; his daughter, Erika Coolman and her husband, Ralph Coolman, of Ventura, Calif.; a son, David and wife, Frances, of Northport, and four grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son, Stephen, in 2013. A private viewing was held May 1 at Brueggemann Funeral Home in East Northport and was followed by a burial at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens. A memorial service will be held at a later date.