Even though Acey’s Trophies & Awards, 301 S. Scott St., Warsaw, officially closed June 1, not everyone is aware Acey’s is no longer doing business.
Chuck Lisenbee died in mid-May a few days after an unexpected illness at IU Hospital in Indianapolis. His widow, Teresa, said he was working up until his death.
Chuck ran Acey’s for the past 28 years and Teresa helped. She said Chuck grew the business from the ground up.
Chuck was an avid softball player in his late teens and early 20s and he was a softball coach. There was nowhere to buy trophies so H&H Enterprise was bought out after the owner’s passing and Acey’s Trophies & Awards came into being.
The name Acey’s came from Teresa’s nickname as she got a hole-in-one in golf, she said. The business was originally on Winona Avenue but then moved to its Scott Street location and was there for the past 10 years.
“He self-taught everything,” Teresa said.
Chuck would do engravings, plaques, trophies and ribbons. His work included sports trophies, spelling bee awards, employee-of-the-month awards and church awards, “almost anything you could think of.” Chuck would build the trophies from the ground up and would do the engraving on-site.
Most of the customers for Acey’s came from Kosciusko County, with some customers coming from elsewhere, she said. There were some busy points as Warsaw sports teams and churches were among the customers at Acey’s.
When Chuck died, it was decided to close Acey’s.
“Because he was the only one who could produce or manufacture the trophies. I basically would just speak to the customers. He built everything hand up. One hundred percent,” Teresa said.
There was an auction and everything sold in the auction. The engraving machines that were at Acey’s were bought from someone else who already had a trophy shop. Teresa said the building is up for sale.
“It’s just nobody could be like he could,” she said.
Even though the business has been closed for a couple months, Teresa still gets calls for people wanting to do business with Acey’s.
“A lot of people don’t know it’s closed” because people don’t always know of Chuck’s death.
Teresa hopes people remember Chuck for his kindness and compassion. She said she’s happy Chuck is remembered that way.
As far as the trophy shop, she hopes people take away that people got a lot for their money. “And they were happy because we got a lot of repeat customers,” she said.
