Mr. Close was reared in Belleville, Essex County, N. J., and received his principal education in the adjacent Town of Bloomfield. His active business life began while he was yet a youth. He learned the metal-working business in Belleville with the firm of Hendricks Brothers, and has constantly followed it with marked success. He is now President of the New Jersey Tube Company, of Harrison, Hudson County, which was established in the spring of 1896 for the manufacture of steel and brass tubing, and which has developed into one of the largest and most successful manufacturing concerns of the kind in the country. The employees in their factory at Harrison number about two hundred and thirty-five, and they turn out a superior quality of steel and brass tubing which finds a ready sale throughout the United States.

Mr. Close is an independent Republican, but has never taken an active part in political affairs, his business demanding his entire attention. Though a young man he has achieved success and holds a high place among the leading manufacturers of Hudson County. He resides, however, in Newark, N. J., and is a member of the Masonic order, of the North End Club, and of the Park Side Angling Club, all of that city.