In Memoriam: Toby Shine

Toby Shine, longtime co-owner and president of Spencer, Iowa-based wire processing and metals recycling company Shine Bros. Corp., has died at age 82.

Shine was a third-generation family business owner, savvy businessman and an innovator at heart who “loved investing in new equipment and technology," according to his obituary, which says Shine “quite literally grew up” at the Shine family metals recycling facility before dedicating his entire career to nurturing and expanding the company.

“Over the decades, his passion for the business never faded. In time, he proudly came to work alongside his two daughters, Keven and Eva,” the obituary says, noting that keeping the family business going with members of the fourth generation was “one of the greatest joys of his life.”

Shine Bros. distinguished itself in the Midwest metals recycling space as a leading wire and cable processing firm.

“We had always liked the nonferrous business, and in about 1980, we started a small wire chopping operation," Shine told Recycling Today for a 2004 company profile. “That operation grew, so we added another line and then a third one. Over the years, we have grown to handle a significant amount of copper and aluminum wire and cable.”

Beyond attention to technology, Shine often said the real strength of the company came from within his family of employees, according to the obituary.

Among the people with whom Shine connected were members of the Bernstein family, including James and Gail Bernstein and Norman and Sheila Bernstein, who owned Sioux City Compressed Steel in Sioux City, Iowa.

In 1990, the long-term friendship turned into a business one when the families joined together to create the TJN Enterprises Inc. joint venture. By 2004, the TJN operated four facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota that served as feeder yards for Shine Bros. and Sioux City Compressed Steel.

For his decades of metals recycling success and service, Shine received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 from the Washington-based Recycled Materials Association (ReMA), then known as the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI).

Shine cherished the honor, though at the time he claimed he was too young for anything with the word lifetime in it, or even to be called “Mr. Shine," the obituary says.

He had numerous interests beyond his work. In addition to time spent with family and friends, he was “a force of nature with a deck of cards, a generous philanthropist and an extraordinary man” who also had a passion for classic cars.

He attended auctions and shows with the enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store, according to the obituary, and poured his creativity into Okoboji Classic Cars, a “man cave” turned museum in Okoboji, Iowa, that offers up northwestern Iowa automotive history.

Shine’s fondness for classic cars was part of a love of anything that would go fast, including airplanes and drag racing cars. As a child, Shine won a national championship in go-cart racing and as an adult earned his pilot’s license.

His philanthropic efforts included the Spencer Community Theatre, the Maritime Museum Board in Okoboji, a Save the Park effort for Arnolds Park Amusement Park in Iowa, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, ISRI/ReMA, the Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, elected stints on the city councils of Spencer and Wahpeton, Iowa, and being recognized as the Spencer Citizen of the Year.

“Toby’s most meaningful acts of kindness were often the ones no one ever heard about,” the obituary says. “Humble and generous, he helped people quietly, sincerely and without expectations of gratitude.”

In his final months, Shine continued coming to the office, keeping an eye on the price of copper and taking on family and friends in card games, according to the obituary.

Shine is survived by his wife Sylvia, whom he married in 1963; daughters, Keven and Eva; grandchildren, Samantha and Anna; great-granddaughter, Tobi Rose; two brothers; and five step-grandchildren. 

Donations can be made in Shine’s honor to the Spencer Hospital Foundation.