Friends and family of local business owner, Peter Dausch, gathered Wednesday night inside the Benjamin Beetle Clothiers on West New Castle Street.

Dausch, who died Monday from prostate cancer at age 70, owned the store and was a former owner of Kirks Menswear, which was once located in the former Butler Mall.

People packed into the store where food and drinks were available and live music was played.

His daughter, Ursala Slater, bounced from customer to friend to family member. She watched and listened as people partied in her father's name.

“The amount of people that have come to me and told me what an impact my dad has had on their life has been amazing,” Slater said.

Slater said her father knew his customers like the best of friends, and for many, he was so personal he used nicknames for them.

Bob “The Mailman” Furar said he has known Dausch for more than 20 years, and he was awed by his willingness to lend a helping hand.

“He'd reach out and do something extra for somebody, and if somebody needed help, he'd always help them,” Furar said. “He was always fair to everybody, and he had a great sense of humor.”

Furar said he had always applauded and supported Dausch in the role of community leader, and he will miss having someone tenacious about elevating Butler to new heights.

“Butler lost one of the good ones,” he said.

[naviga:iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fbutlereaglenews%2Fvideos%2Fvb.339066760498%2F10154931016335499%2F%3Ftype%3D3&show_text=0&width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"][/naviga:iframe]

Josh “Mad Dog” Mattocks, a former employee of the store, said he was drawn to Dausch by his personality. He said he still remembers meeting Dausch for the first time. It was shortly after he had moved to Butler with his fiancé.

“He was just super friendly with a huge smile,” Mattocks said. “It had been as if I'd been friends with him for a decade.”

Mattocks has tattoos on visible parts of his body, and he said in the 2000s employers considered them taboo. Dausch did not.

“He reached out and he gave me a job.,” Mattocks said. “Out of nowhere, a week later, (Pete) was trusting me with the key to the shop to open and close.”

After graduating from North Catholic High School, Dausch attended Point Park University until he was drafted by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. After his draft period ended, Dausch re-enlisted serving in Wildflecken, Germany, where he survived a training accident involving a helicopter crash that killed several other soldiers.

After the military, Dausch graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1973, before opening Kirks Menswear, which closed in 1986. He opened the Benjamin Beetle store in 1990.

“He was a pretty incredible boss,” Ryan Bowser, a store employee, said.

Bowser said Dausch was always active in the community and trying to help people, sometimes by the simple act of giving them work.

“He was always fighting for the underdog,” Bowser said.

As people filtered in and out of the store, Slater said the evening went exactly as she'd hoped with a lot of laughter and memories.

“My dad is a party,” she said. “My dad loved everybody and wanted everybody to go to dinner with him and to have a great time.”

Although certain of the present, Slater said she is not sure what the family will do with the store, leaving the future of Benjamin Beetle Clothiers uncertain.

“To be announced. I don't know. We would love to keep his legacy going.”