When Greg Stiles, owner of Heights Guitar in Cleveland Heights, died unexpectedly of pancreatic cancer in February, it seemed the locally owned boutique music store didn’t have much chance of surviving him.
Over 20 years in business, the affable, shaggy-haired, 60-year-old School of the Arts science teacher had developed a following with his staff of musicians and on-site repair technicians, and high-end stringed instruments. And when the owners of Toledo’s Vintage Guitars came up over the summer to look at the store’s stock with an eye to purchasing it for their own shop, Heights’ Guitars’ days appeared numbered.
