Manuel Arroyo recalls fondly how Mohammad Hormozfar treated him — like a son.

Arroyo worked for Hormozfar, or “Hormose” for short, at San Andres Hardware for the past two years. But they knew each other ever since Hormozfar took over the business at the corner of Micheltorena and San Andres Streets 10 years ago.

“I would help him unpack his stuff, and he would give me candy bars or a cookie from (his home country) Iran, or if I would clean the windows, he would pay me like 10 bucks an hour,” Arroyo said. “He was always helpful, he always wanted to help people. I think that’s why he stayed here.”

When Arroyo started working for him, their relationship changed, he said.

“He was like a father figure to me,” Arroyo said. “The only time he would tell me stuff he would say, ‘I’m telling you this like a father tells a son, not to yell at you. I’m telling you so you can improve yourself and be a better person.’”

The two would often see each other for eight hours a day. But that wasn’t the case last month when Hormozfar spent nearly an entire day resting in the back of his store at 635 W. Micheltorena St. Hormozfar emerged about five minutes before Arroyo finished his shift.

“He seemed good, he was joking around with one of the regular customers, and I said, ‘I will see you on Wednesday,’” Arroyo said.

Arroyo’s brother and fellow San Andres employee, Jhonny Arroyo, said he seemed tired but that wasn’t unusual.

“That’s Hormose,” he said. “Whenever we would go on drives, he would always fall asleep in the back. That was just him.”

But when Arroyo returned two days later, the store was locked up. He was banging on the back window when Tony Becerra, owner of Tony Becerra’s Koei-Kan Karate-Do, came over from across the street. Becerra said San Andres Hardware didn’t open the day before.

“That was weird,” Arroyo said. “Then Tony called the cops, and a locksmith came out here and opened the door, and I had to wait outside. All they told me is that he looked like he had been like that for a while.”

The police found Hormozfar dead on his cot on the morning of March 27. While the cause of death has not been determined, the Arroyo brothers said he suffered from diabetes, a bad liver and had undergone multiple heart transplants. He was 63.

“I feel sad — and lost,” Arroyo said. “I was with him most hours out of the day, so I lost a really good friend.”

If “Hormose” had one wish, it would be that his store remained open, the brothers said.

“He wanted to be here for people, that was his whole goal,” Jhonny Arroyo said.

Hormozfar has two sons who live in Orange County, and a wife who had been taking care of her ailing mother in Iran. His sons are planning to keep the business, which has been on the Westside for more than 35 years; Arroyo said he has been maintaining the store in their absence.
When one of Hormozfar’s sons came to the store, Arroyo would tell him sto
ries about how he and his boss joked around.

“He would smile and I could see the joy coming out of him from his dad,” Arroyo said.

Business had decreased over the past few years, and Hormozfar was worried that he may have to close up, Jhonny Arroyo said. But he always stayed positive.

“If we make a little money this week, it’ll be OK,’” he said Hormozfar would say.

Hormozfar would come into nearby Ray’s Liquor and buy the $10 California Lottery Scratchers, owner Ray Gusman said.

“He would do anything for you,” Gusman said. “He was just that kind of guy. I know a lot of people are concerned about keeping the store because it’s a big part of our little community over here. I heard the boys say that he wanted to keep it open. That makes sense because he was that kind of guy and he knew what it meant to this area.”

Hormozfar is survived by his wife, two sons and his 3-year-old granddaughter.

San Andres Hardware will remain open. It’s time to help a man who always had others people’s needs in mind, Arroyo said.

“I want to keep it going because he loved this,” Arroyo said. “He was taking money out of his pocket to keep it going. Helping people made him happy.”

— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.