Remembering Fritz Kussin, Concord’s ever-gregarious ‘retail mayor’

When Louisa Yamartino was about 10, she wanted to ride her bicycle from her home on Elm Street to swimming lessons at Walden Pond.

Her father, William Frederick Kussin Jr., known as Fritz, agreed — but he secretly followed her in his car to make sure she was safe.

When her bike chain broke near the Hapgood-Wright Town Forest, Kussin pulled into a nearby parking lot to help. Someone spotted him picking up the young girl and called the cops, thinking she was being abducted.

The police soon recognized Kussin, and the family had a good laugh about it.

Yamartino said the story captured her father’s approach to parenting and how he gave his children room to find their own way while making sure they were safe.

“He was somebody who would make us laugh,” she said. “He was very funny [and] never harsh or biting in his support of us.”

Commerce and camaraderie 

Kussin, a fifth-generation Concordian and descendant of the Alcott family, died August 27 at age 93. For decades, he was a fixture in the town center, where he and his first wife, Georgine “Gigi” Kussin, ran their family clothing business. He mentored local merchants, volunteered in the community, and built friendships across generations.

“He was sort of a larger-than-life personality in such a great way,” Yamartino said. “Not in a way to overshadow you, but in a way to kind of envelop you and bring you into his orbit.”

Maynard Forbes, who shared a wall with Kussin at Concord Greene for the last decade of his life, remembers a man who could make an ordinary conversation fun.

“He had a whale of a good smile and always, always a friendly rejoinder,” Forbes said.

Kussin was born on January 29, 1933, and attended the Fenn and Middlesex Schools before graduating from Harvard College. After serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, he worked for J.C. Penney before returning to Concord in 1961 to help run his family’s store.

The business, which his mother helped found in 1938, became a gathering point for generations of local customers. Kussin and Gigi stewarded it together for decades.

Forbes, who operated the West Concord 5 & 10, first met Kussin through their work as merchants more than 25 years ago. He came to think of his friend as the “retail mayor” of Concord.

Forbes said that Kussin welcomed people starting their own businesses. He would explain who they needed to know, where to go, and how to get started.

“He was full [of] welcoming information,” Forbes said.

Generations and interactions

Kussin’s influence came from making people feel comfortable around him. Forbes said Kussin never used his Alcott heritage to make himself the center of attention.

His daughter remembers the same instinct at home. He sang a good-morning song, gave relatives and their friends nicknames, and took an interest in whatever his children were passionate about.

Kussin’s Concord roots ran deep. His great-grandmother Anna Alcott Pratt was Louisa May Alcott’s sister and the inspiration for Meg in “Little Women.” But his connection to the town went beyond ancestry. He loved the people who kept it going.

In a 1997 oral history session with the Concord Free Public Library, Kussin recalled customers returning to the family store with their children and grandchildren.

“Every now and then we’ll have a grandmother come in and say, ‘Oh, I haven’t been in here for 25 years; it’s wonderful to see you’re still here,’” he said. “So maybe we’re not irrelevant yet.”

Yamartino said her father also remained open to perspectives beyond the world he had known growing up. 

After George Floyd was killed in 2020, Kussin asked her to help him find books about racism. “I remember thinking to myself, he was probably 80 years old at that point,” Yamartino said. “For him to want to do the work to kind of get a different perspective — that was great.”

She said he taught his children through his actions, including his willingness to volunteer, support local organizations, and help those in need.

Even after stepping away from the clothing business, Kussin stayed busy. He continued managing properties, delivered Meals on Wheels, and made time for the Wily Old Codgers, a group of men who met on Thursday mornings to talk about life, work, and the community.

Forbes said the group offered a place where members could speak freely, with an understanding that their conversations stayed private.

Following Gigi Kussin’s death, Kussin married Allene Riley Froelich, an artist and educator who served on the Emerson Umbrella board, in 2007.

After moving to Concord Park in April 2026, Kussin continued greeting everyone he passed on his way to the dining room, even when getting around with his walker became difficult.

The instinct to make a connection never left him, Yamartino said.

“He cared more about others than himself,” she said, “and he lived that every day.”

Kussin’s memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. October 23 at Trinitarian Congregational Church, 54 Walden Street.