RIP To The Pizza Maker

From jsonline: Joseph "Pep" Simek Sr., one of the founding partners of Tombstone Pizza in Medford, died Monday of natural causes at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee. He was 86.
Simek and his late wife, Frances, moved to Medford from Chicago in 1960. By 1962 they were running the Tombstone Tavern - right next to a cemetery - with Simek's brother, Ronald.
The brothers both had families to support and came up with the pizza-making idea to bring in more money. They worked out of the bar's 6-by-6-foot kitchen.
The pizzas were fine, but they got better after Pep Simek broke his leg and, unable to tend bar, had time to fiddle with the recipe. He called the owner of a favorite Chicago pizza place, who told him the secret was in the spices.
The resulting pizzas were a hit, and within three years Tombstone Pizza was available in the Medford area, selling 2,000 pizzas a day and known for the tagline, "What do you want on your Tombstone?"
The company was sold to Kraft in 1986, and later to Nestlé, but Simek opened another place in Medford, Pep's Pizza, and had numerous other business interests after the sale. He owned the Embassy Suites/Regency Suites Hotel of Green Bay, Paradise Shores Hotel and Resort in Lake Holcombe, Captain Morgan's Retreat in Belize and Enerquip of Medford.
And the influence of his family remained in Medford for years to come.  http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/simek-a-founder-of-tombstone-pizza-has-died-g08rrao-192103331.html
For me, there is nothing better than a Tombstone sausage pizza, if I can ever find it.