Mel Haber was born on October 24, 1936,in Brooklyn, New York and died on October 25, 2016.

He was the owner and proprietor of the Ingleside Inn and Melvyn’s Restaurant in Palm Springs, California from 1975 until his death.

Haber also served on the board of the Angel View Crippled Children’s Foundation for more than 25 years.

Mel was youngest of four children and the only boy of Louis and Mary Haber.

He was the son of a garment district salesman, Haber grew up in an apartment overlooking Ocean Parkway in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

Haber attended Erasmus Hall High School; some of its alumni included actors Jeff Chandler, Moe Howard, Bernie Kopell, Barbara Stanwyck, singer Barbra Streisand, author Mickey Spillane, chess player Bobby Fischer and Sid Luckman, the former quarterback of the Chicago Bears.

After Louis Haber died at fifty-two of a heart attack, Mel became the family’s breadwinner.

To make ends meet, at twelve-year-old he started delivering groceries, sold peanuts and beer at Ebbets Field and spent his summers in the Catskills as a busboy.

Mel Haber says it was there where he learned “motion efficiency,” which is commonly known as “working smart,” a trait he used when he eventually operated six different restaurants.

After Haber graduated high school, he enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.) on the west side of Manhattan in the fall of 1954.

Mel Haber passed away at 80 years old.