Page 2 — ReflecTions –– fall 2014
ReflecTions Never running from an emergency Emergency management coordinator helps responders stay up-to-date PUBlisHeR Elizabeth Gorske Managing ediToR Eric Young ediToRial sTaff Sherry Barnum Tim Barnum Kyle Kaminski Kimberly Landenberg Jason Ogden Matt Varcak adVeRTising sales Jama Gates Anthony Kachiros Carla Reeves coMPosiTion Sharon Ehlert Jesse Karbowski eMail sherrybarnum@ogemawherald.com cover Photo
photo courtesy of patty palmer
A view of the People’s Grocery Store in Curran, Mich. Owned by Glen Conrad, pictured at far left, with his nephew Bob Bugg. See story on page 6.
Have a story idea for Reflections? Email us at sherrybarnum@ ogemawherald.com
By Tim Barnum For more than 40 years, Ed Rohn of Omer has been dealing with emergencies in some capacity. The 63-year-old Omer resident became an EMT in Arenac County in 1972, and from that point on remained active in emergency response. Rohn has served on the fire department and now trains firefighters. He is the emergency management coordinator for Arenac and Iosco counties as well. Rohn never planned to make emergency response his life calling, but has always had a knack for filling a need and doing so with dedication. “I don’t think I probably had that great of a vision at that time to think that was going to be my future, but my father was a firefighter and a deputy on the sheriff’s department, and I think I probably had a little desire to follow in his shoes a little bit,” he said. “I knew there was an EMT need in our county. I think I was in my late teens and involved in a motor vehicle accident and saw the quality of care needed was not there. I think anytime I’ve seen a need in my community I try to fill it. Whenever I commit to something I try to be dedicated and bring in others.” About 12 years after becoming an EMT, Rohn joined the Omer-Arenac Fire Department, which he was the chief of for several year. Not long after joining the fire department, Rohn decided to become an instructor for fledgling firefighters. “I began instructing in the mid-1980s, solely because I thought the training was very important to the local volunteers,” he said. “It’s difficult for the local volunteers to go out of the community. Everyone has a day job, and it’s difficult to go out of the community for the training they need. I took it upon myself. I was self-employed at the time, and had time I could get educated to become a certified instructor.” Standish Area Fire Authority Chief Mitch Oliver said he was in the first class Rohn taught to local volunteers. “The sheer number of classes and trainings that he goes to to keep his knowledge current make him effective as an instructor,” Oliver said. “He’s got not only experience from doing it, but he’s got the current knowledge because he goes to the training for the updates.” Oliver said volunteer fire departments do not always get along with each other, but having Rohn teach classes where people from
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Edward Rohn (right) of Omer receives a Michigan Emergency Management Association award from the association’s chairman, Jim VanBendegom, in 2007. Courtesy photo
several departments attend together has led to more collaboration and cooperation. “Anytime that you have multiple departments working together, whether it’s training or on fire scenes, it’s easier to work together when you know each other,” he said. “By having the training here and the instructor here, it helped with the camaraderie with them knowing each other.” Rohn said he cannot count how many firefighters he has at least partially trained. “That number would be in the thousands, and it would be within the state of Michigan,” he said. “In the immediate area, in Arenac and the surrounding counties, probably well over 50 percent of the first responders would have been in one of the classes I taught.” Firefighters are not the only responders Rohn works with. Currently, he is a Federal Emergency Management Agency incident command instructor (EMC). “I have taught literally hundreds, and probably in the thousands of students statewide in the incident command,” he said. At the Arenac County Sheriff’s Department, Rohn has been an important partner. Undersheriff Don McIntyre said Rohn has helped the department receive grant dollars time and time again. “Ed has secured thousands and thousands
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of federal grant dollars for this county, in particular the sheriff’s office,” he said. “He’s got grants for overtime wages, for shoreline patrol — recently we received some jet skis. We’ve gotten a pickup. There’s been a lot of money that Ed Rohn has secured for this county.” “There are things that this county can’t afford to provide, but we have because of his grant work,” McIntyre said. “That’s really a big part of what he’s done. To us, we’re very appreciative of his work.” Oliver said he continues to turn to Rohn when he has a question. “If I have something that’s a major incident and I have a question about it, he’s my first call as the fire chief, and I use that on a regular basis,” he said. “I call in and say, ‘This is what’s going on. I need this, this and this. Do you have a reference or do you know something?’ As an EMC, he’s a reference for the fire department to obtain necessary assets.” As EMC, Rohn also has to be prepared, and make sure others are prepared, in the case of an emergency. “Probably the biggest involvement is the natural disasters and storms,” he said. “Last winter particularly, there was a lot of heavy
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One man’s retirement is another man’s work week 92-year-old man works 40 hours per week through retirement By Matt Varcak At the age of 92, Walter Suisse of Rose City still works 40 hours per week and shows no signs of slowing down. His secret is simple. “I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to keep busy,” Suisse said. And he has throughout his life. One of 15 children, Suisse was born and raised in St. Clair by his parents, Edward and Leona. Suisse said he has seen St. Clair transform from a small town of 1,500 people to a sprawling metropolis. “Places where I used to hunt rabbits and pheasants are now all condominiums and shopping malls,” he said. “From Port Huron to Detroit it is practically one big city now.” Walter said his parents led by example. “We had a reputation of being one of the nicest families in town,” he said. “My parents were real strict with us, but they were good to us.” He recalled his father warning him, “If you ever get in trouble, you’re going to be in worse trouble when you get home.” Walter heeded his parents’ warnings, admitting he has never smoked, gambled or even received a traffic citation in his life. Walter worked with his father as a carpenter contractor before joining the Navy during WWII. He served a three-year tour in the Pacific on a landing ship, tank (LST), or as he and the other sailors called
Walter Suisse of Rose City poses for a picture in front of a handful of the trophies he earned racing snowmobiles for six years. Suisse is a former class C state champion in the 340cc stock division. Matt VarCak
it, a “large stationary target.” He said his ship was headed to Okinawa, Japan, when the call came over the radio that the U.S. had struck Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. He said it was a huge relief and a big celebration.
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“There were 32 ships in our flotilla, and every ship started firing their guns,” he said. Walter said he and his four brothers, who also served in the military, all returned home safely, with the exception of
one brother whose finger was shot off. “We were lucky,” he said. After leaving the Navy, Walter went to work at his brother’s tool shop. Shortly thereafter, Walter opened his own tool shop, Micro Mold Company, which built plastic injection molds for the automotive industry for more than 20 years. During that time, Walter also ran Handy Products Company with his daughter. Together they made Christmas items for 15 years. When she got married, they sold the business. With both businesses sold, Walter moved to Northern Michigan to retire with his wife of 56 years, Ethel. But when she passed away in 1997, Walter said he grew tired of sitting around. So he rejoined the workforce at the age of 80, accepting a job to maintain the grounds at Green Briar Golf Course in Lupton. “My wife was gone, so I decided to do that in the summer,” he said. He has now worked there for more than 12 years, putting in 40 hours each week mowing the roughs at the golf course. He said the seasonal job is perfect for him because it leaves his schedule open for the fall and winter. “That’s my hunting and fishing time,” he said. “People think I’m crazy, but winter has always been my favorite time of the year since I was a little kid,” he said. “I’ve got friends in Florida wanting me to come
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Mio Study Club remains fixture in Oscoda County since late ’30s By sherry Barnum A lot of significant events happened in the late 1930s, including the first commercial Pan Am flight across the Pacific, Margaret Mitchell taking home the Pulitzer Prize for “Gone with the Wind,” Henry Ford initiating the 32-hour work week and the Mio Study Club being formed. According to Mio Study Club President Nancy Miller, the club was organized in the late 1930s to give ladies a place to gather and be social with each other. “It was originally started around books,” Vice President Nancy Crane said. “When I first started we would read certain types of books and go through them. They could be books by a certain author or genre like mysteries.” “And it was started basically to get together as a part of friendship and to study different books and to take part in learning and social situations,” Crane said. “A lot of counties started study clubs around that time.” According to Secretary Jane Lord, the club was also started for something fun for ladies to do after being home all day. “They would get dressed up and have their meetings in the afternoon,” Lord said. “And it was fun for them to get dressed up and go out.”
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Above, current Mio Study Club members Nancy Crane, Jane Lord and Nancy Miller pose for a picture after discussing the club’s history. Right, Pauline Boerner, Iveline Richardson, Eva Booth and Rosamond Pierce smile for a picture at Janie Houlton’s during a meeting. sherry BarnuM/Courtesy photo
“That’s part of the reason why I didn’t join earlier, but it’s more casual now,” Miller joked. Lord said as time moved on people didn’t want to come to the meetings because they thought they had to get dressed up. “It was a formal affair when it started and you had to be voted into the club,” Crane said. According to Miller, the meeting times and formal dress code probably changed when working ladies started joining the club. “A lot of the members were teachers or professionals in the community,” she said. The Mio Study Club was also influential in starting the library, and the group worked very closely with the library for quite a few years, according to Crane. “The first library was in the justice of the peace. Then it moved to the extension office where it was just in one section. Eventually, it moved to both sections of the office, and then we moved to the new library and now they have a new one,” Crane said. “We aren’t as active in the new library as much as we should be though.” Miller said in the past they used to bring in cookies and refreshments and help with programs at the library.
See Club, 9
ReflecTions –– fall 2014 — Page 5
Dobson shares ties with Ogemaw County By sherry Barnum If you ever attend a dance at the old community center in West Branch on Christmas night, chances are you were dancing and enjoying the sounds of Jimmie Dobson and his orchestra. “Although I graduated from Bay City Central in 1947,” Jim Dobson said, “I had a large 16 piece band that played in West Branch for many years.” “We traveled all over and I believe we played in every high school and college in Michigan,” Dobson said. “I played drums and we remained a band for seven years, playing on average 167 nights per year.” Dobson said his father started his corporations in 1927, and being the only child he was elected to take over. “My father was a railroad engineer of the New York Central for 40 years, and after he retired wanted to build and buy property on the corner where he went through almost every day,” Dobson said. “It was called the city of Ogemaw then. The old hotel was still there yet and was a big part of the reason my father bought and built a cabin there.” “We were always welcomed by a lad, Mickey Duggan,” Dobson said. “He was an old photographer there and lived above the Model Restaurant, which is now called Loggers.” Dobson said Duggan lived upstairs in an apartment and had a photographic studio down the hall. “That was my introduction to West Branch,” he said.
“I’ve always been a great person to share things with people and my museum is a foundation, and I hope it’s here for many years for people to enjoy.” — Jim Dobson
Dobson said in 1941 his father started to purchase property in the West Branch area and bought two square miles off of the south side of M-55 out toward The Nightmare Golf Course. “Our property is called the 3D Ranch and is still there,” he said. “Dobson Road goes right in there and was the last road to be asphalted in Ogemaw Township, I believe.” “I still have the property, but it is strictly used for deer hunting and reserve,” Dobson said. In 1988, Dobson said he had one of the biggest parades he believes West Branch has ever seen. “I was potentiated by the Shrine and I had my summer ceremonial up there on the ranch,” he said. “We had a big parade with more than 87 people in the parade.” “It was held on Aug. 13, 1988, and was the hottest summer that was ever on record in Michigan,” Dobson said. “I remember I had to get permission from the governor to
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have the parade out there in the woods on the ranch because it was so dry for fire protection.” “It was quite the occasion,” he said. “And was enjoyed by a lot of people.” Dobson said he had a big circus tent there for Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass to play. “I wanted to have it at the ranch because you could pick the place you most wanted to have it within the Shrine region, and West Branch covered that,” Dobson said. “I was always in the Shrine Club and was real active in that.” Dobson said he was also a clown in the Shrine for 35 years and performed at the Shrine Circuses. In 2006, Dobson opened the Antique Toy & Fire Truck Museum in Bay City. “I thought about opening it in West Branch, but figured that I had an appeal to the population down here,” he said. Dobson said in 1952 he returned from the Korean Conflict as a captain in the medical corps with the dream of starting his museum then. “I opened the museum to share the collection that I have accumulated over many years, and I guess the reason why I had an
interest in firefighting was because I was the assistant fire chief for Bangor Township for many years,” he said. Dobson said he is still collecting and has 12,500 toys and 70 fire trucks right now. “Before the museum opened I stored everything in our large warehouses that we had for our businesses,” Dobson said. “And when the museum opened, I had 13, 48-foot semi trailers loaded with toys.” According to Dobson, his favorite thing at the museum is the New York City Super Pumper. “It’s my favorite because it is the only one in the world, number one,” he said. “It’s one of the largest fire trucks in the world, number two, and it pumps 8,800 gallons a minute.” “And I bought it out of a junk yard in New Jersey after it had been sold to a junk dealer,” Dobson said. Dobson said on average they see around 7,000 people through the museum and it is open May 1 through Oct. 1, Tuesday through Sunday 12-4 p.m. “We are also open throughout the year on special request for tours,” Dobson said.
See dobSon, 9
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Currangeneralstoreshowedcharacter By Jay ogden Although the building is vacant now, the People’s Grocery Store in Curran was once a center of the community for many in the area, according to Patty Palmer. Patty is the granddaughter of Glen Conrad, who owned the store with his wife, Evelyn. She recently shared photos of the store with The Oscoda County Herald for its continued Pieces of the Past section, which highlights a historic photo and information often supplied by area residents and readers. But Patty’s photo packet warranted more than a photo and a caption. The store was one of a couple in the area, but according to Patty, the general store was a major part of the lives of her grandparents. A photo depicts Glen working in the store with his nephew Bob Bugg, tending the county, while an unidentified couple stands on the other side of the building. Although the store is no bigger than a smallish cabin, it’s packed with everything anyone would need to live. There are boxes of laundry soap lining the back wall of the building, bushel baskets of onion sets and potatoes on the floor, jars of honey on the counter and event dress shirts displayed. A person could pick up dinner, buy a shirt and the works to wash it on a trip to the store. If a customer was low on gas, the store also served as the area Standard Oil station. The photo, Patty said, depicts the store in the late 1940s. She said her grandparents catered to the
locals and deer hunters who would call ahead for lunch meat and other supplies that her grandparents would wrap up for them when they arrived from downstate to hunt deer. According to Patty, her grandfather grew up in South Dakota in the 1920s. He would later marry in the following decade and buy the store, which was operated by the pair, until Evelyn died in 1975. It was only a few years later in 1977 that Glen followed his wife. Patty said her grandparents were extremely passionate about the store, and at any given time one or the other would be operating the business. In fact, they would take separate vacations so they could be at the business. “It was rare that both of them went somewhere,” she said. “They knew their customers; if someone walked into the store they knew what the customer was going to get. If you were a smoker, they knew what you were going to ask for like Lucky Strikes.” Patty described her grandmother as a pioneer woman who kept the pair’s greenhouse, located in the back of the store, in good order. “She had a greenhouse, and she raised pheasants and peacocks and chickens, and was kind of a pioneer woman,” she said. “She thought outside the box and did a lot of stuff and was her own little entrepreneur. If there was a buck to be made, she made it.” And being a family store, the business employed family members, including Penny. “We had hand-dipped ice cream cones where I worked at, and I could go down to
A view of the People’s Grocery Store owned by Glen Conrad, pictured at far left, with his nephew Bob Bugg, who worked at the store. The couple on the right are unidentified. Right, two unidentified children stand next to the gas pumps of the store. patty palMer/Courtesy photo
the little bait shop and dip worms,” she said. “I also pumped gas — our station was fullservice — and I did mix for boats. Down the street was another family
See Curran, 10
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Above, Peggy and Bill Blackmore stand in front of their airplane at the West Branch airport, while holding the rudder to the aircraft they are building. Right, Bill drops candy from a helicopter during the fly-in. Courtesy photos
Navigating through the sky, giving back on the ground By sherry Barnum Bill Blackmore of Omer doesn’t know the exact moment he wanted to become a pilot, but he always knew he wanted to fly. “As a kid, I remember staying up late to watch ‘Sea Hunt,’ which is an old show. But when they signed off at midnight they did the Airman’s Prayer, which was always cool and really intrigued me,” he said. “Leonardo da Vinci’s quote, ‘When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return,’ and there is just something about flying that always made me want to go back.” “You deal with things every day, and when you are up flying your concentration is on flying,” he said. “And you can go up for an hour and it just puts life away for a while.” Bill said he started flying when he was 25 and trained with WWII fighter pilot Wilbur Roach. “I trained with him for quite a while, then life kind of got in the way,” he said. “Then I went back and trained with a gentleman named Don Teders, who was a captain in the Navy. He flew a flying boat (PBM), which is made by Martin and was a bigger plane and has a captain, pilot and crew. He was also second in command of Air America.” Bill said in 2004 he finished his license with Dave Bronson. “After that I took my federal check ride and passed –– they put you through the ringer,” he said. “They do everything from making you fly slow flight to stalls to putting you under the hood so you can’t see out
of the airplane. They make you close your eyes, put your head down and screw you all up, then have you take over using only the instruments, but you learn all that in the basic training.” Currently, Bill and his wife, Peggy, are in the process of building their own aircraft, and Peggy has been flying with Bill since 2003. “It’s the type of airplane we want and that serves the things we want to do,” Bill said. “It’s capable of taking off in 150 feet and landing in the same amount.” “I’m not a technical person; I’m more on the helping end,” Peggy said. “I like flying and I like staying active, and I think if you step out of your comfort zone it keeps you sharper longer.” Peggy said she has intended to get her pinch hitter’s license in case she needs to fly in an emergency landing if she should ever have to do that. “It’s another thing on my to-do list that I haven’t gotten around to yet,” she said. Bill said last spring he and Peggy went to Mexico, Mo., to a rudder workshop where they built the rudder for their aircraft and brought back parts for the wings, horizontal stabilizer, elevator and fuel system. “In the spring, we will go back and pick up the fuselage,” he said. “We’ve never built an airplane before, but this one fits the type of flying we want to do, and there aren’t many commercial airplanes that we could buy or afford to buy that service that need.” “We want to fly low and slow and just look at things and observe things like the fall
See navigating, 10
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Page 8 — ReflecTions –– fall 2014
Fair royalty: Burt and Phyllis Morris By Kyle Kaminski Burt Morris is the definition of a longtime West Branch resident. Born in a farmhouse just behind where his Campbell Road home now sits, he’s been a resident of Ogemaw County for his entire life. Now, more than 80 years later, Burt and his wife Phyllis are still proud to call the community home. “Our favorite part about the area is the people,” Phyllis said. “We go out into town now just to see them. I just like people.” As a longtime farmer and oilfield worker, Burt’s work ethic is still just as strong as the day he started. According to Phyllis, he’s still out pumping oil wells and spending time on the fields today. His father, he said, was a farmer his entire life. Burt has even passed the oil-working gene to his three sons, Tom, Jim and Dave, all work at various oil fields in the county. His son, Steve, works for the West Branch City Police Department and his daughter, Linda, is a hospital business manager. Phyllis, too, has been part of the West Branch community for decades. Having moved to the area in 1948 to finish high school, she said she and Burt met at Tut’s Drive-In downtown. “I got a job working there mostly just to have something to do,” she said. “Burt would come in with a friend to get coffee or a sandwich. It was a small town, so we got together quite a bit.” Phyllis recalls visiting local theaters with friends as one of the main activities of their
dating life. Although there wasn’t much to do in the small town of West Branch, she said the movie theaters were where she and Burt bonded the most. Celebrating their 63rd anniversary this year, Burt and Phyllis have been together ever since. To Phyllis, the longevity of their marriage carries an important meaning. “A lot of our friends are gone now,” she said. “But there’s a message to it. God wants us to do something. I don’t know what, but he’s kept us going this long; it has to mean something.” Their happiest moment together, they agreed, was during a bus tour they took to Nashville, Tenn., part of an offering from the bank in 1985, they recalled stopping at the Grand Ole Opry and other places in the city. “It was just to get away,” Burt said. “They had tours available and we just had the opportunity. It was nice. It was one of the times we enjoyed together, anyway.” While Nashville served as a happy memory for the couple, Phyllis said the best time period for her and Burt was during the ’60s. Having moved to the farmhouse they live in today, it was the field work that really brought them together. “I didn’t work out in town at the time,” she said. “We worked together in the field. You can’t beat that life. Being together and farming out in the fresh air, it was just the greatest. I just think that’s a wonderful time to raise a family.” Phyllis said the farm work gave her time to think and still be out in the fresh air. “She drove the tractor and I loaded the
Phyllis and Burt Morris are all smiles after being crowned the 2014 Ogemaw County Fair Queen and King. File
photo
bales onto the wagon,” Burt said. That love for farming may be what attracted Burt and Phyllis to getting involved with the county fair. Having completed a substantial amount of work during the opening of the fairgrounds, Burt said he did the work on a volunteer basis. “I just felt like I was a part of it,” he said. “It was all volunteering. We sawed lumber and cleared trees. Of course, it’s grown since
then. I think it grew more than they thought it would.” Their work for the fair during its early days earned them crowns as fair king and queen this year. The honor, Phyllis said, was a welcomed surprise. “I was shocked,” she said. “We were helping show pigs that same day and we just liked
See MorriSeS, 11
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Club: Hopestodrawinmoremembers FroM Page 4 “We hosted a meet the candidates and helped with pretty much anything the library needed, whether it was book sales, furnishing refreshments or making cookies,” Crane said. According to Miller, a lot of the members were on the library board and some still remain as active as they can in the library. “If one of our members passes away, we buy a book in memorial for them and then we donate it to the library,” Miller said. But the library isn’t the only thing the study club helps with in the community. It also does a Christmas project every year for the women’s shelter or nursing home. “Linda is in charge of it and I think she calls and asks the nursing home what they might need and they will say, ‘Oh, we would like bird seed because some of our residents like to sit and watch the birds.’ So we will get bird seed or smaller things for them,” Lord said.
According to Miller, the study club meets nine months of the year. “We used to meet September to May, but now that we have all gotten old we didn’t want to meet during the winter. So now we meet April to December,” Miller said. “We usually meet at someone’s house. But some of us can’t have them at the house so we meet at the library or a church.” But depending on the program or time of year, the club has also had meetings at the museum. “We also do a Christmas gift exchange at our December meeting, which was a big deal when it first started because they could only spend 50 cents on the gift,” Miller said. “Now it has gone up to $5 on a gift, but it was really fun trying to find a 50 cent gift,” Crane said. “And when I started dues were $1, now they are $2. I guess the cost goes up with the times,” Crane said. Miller said the study club picks a new program to study every year.
“When I first started, we were studying collections,” Miller said. “People brought in teacups or funny hats to show and share the history.” When choosing programs to study, the study club plans them out for a complete year. “One year we did the ’40s and famous women of the ’40s,” Miller said. “Another year we did places in Michigan.” “Whoever the planning committee is, they choose the topic, and we try not to do the same thing as the last year,” she said. “We even had a year we studied all about Oscoda County.” “We’ve talked about the history of Mio and where the schools were,” Lord said. “In the past, the ladies did the programs themselves,” Crane said. “But now we have speakers come in.” “But I think it’s because most of the ladies didn’t work when it was first started and they had time to study their presentations
out,” Lord said. “Where now there are a lot of things going on from school activities to people traveling and other things.” “But we still do some of them ourselves,” Crane said. Miller said anyone can join the Mio Study Club. “Our numbers are way down and we are just hanging on by a thread,” Miller said. “Now we have the problem with a couple of members going south for the winter and people traveling in the summer, so it’s difficult to have a full staff coming to meetings, so anyone who approaches us and wanted to join, we would take them.” “And some might not want to come because school has taken over so much more and a lot of women work,” Lord said. “So time is limited.” “There’s a lot of history here and we would hate to see it fizzle out,” Crane said. Crane joined the study club in 1968, Lord joined in 1980 and Miller joined in 1990.
Dobson: Hasnointentionsofslowingdown FroM Page 5 “My hobby is collecting fire trucks, and although I have been a part of the 3D Ranch since it’s inception I have never shot a deer. But it is still used for hunting land because my family all are hunters,” he said. “And I’ve decided to hold onto it all these
One bedroom apartments
years for the family. I had six children and I only have one left, and they are all avid hunters including my two grandchildren.” Dobson said he still gets to West Branch often. “That is one of our divisions of Dobson Home Health Care, and of course we are in
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several cities. But my daughter and son-inlaw, Jami and Steven Schrumpf, are the owners,” he said. “We operate in 22 counties in the state of Michigan, and my granddaughter heads up the marketing division.” According to Dobson, he had 13 busi-
nesses and has no intentions of slowing down or retiring until the good Lord takes him. “I’ve always been a great person to share things with people and my museum is a foundation, and I hope it’s here for years for people to enjoy,” he said.
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Page 10 — ReflecTions –– fall 2014
Curran: Businessesplaybigpartintown’shistory FroM Page 6 business, owned by Penny’s aunt Shirley Conrad, called Shirley’s Curran Cafe. The business is also closed, and is most likely known by the public as the restaurant in Curran called Nick and Ivy’s.
Penny served a lot of customers over the years, and she got to know them personally in a way that can often only happen in a small town. “I worked for her for 25 years,” she said. “I’m a people person. I think that no
matter what you do it’s all about customer service.” According to Penny, what made her time at the cafe and store different from today is the way people got to know each other. She said they would often ask about
family and how they were doing, and she knew the customers really cared about the family. “It was seeing the people,” she said. “They asked about your mom and your dad and they knew about your family.”
Navigating: Blackmoresstayactivethroughvolunteering FroM Page 7 colors and traveling around the state to different airports. And this one fits our mission, which is built to the style of flying that the three of us like to do,” he said. “I found I liked (flying), and it’s a neat activity to fly to some small airport or in some cases taxi to a restaurant across the runway or right by the airport,” Peggy said. “Most communities encourage people to fly in by making things accessible to them.” When Bill and Peggy aren’t in the sky, they are volunteering and giving back to their community. “Whatever I volunteer for, Peggy volunteers for as well,” Bill said. “We do things together.” “Peggy and I are both on the fair board as volunteers for the Arenac County Fair,” Bill said. “The fair board has a lot of good people on it, and they are trying hard to maintain the fair for the community.” Bill said they both enjoy working with the fair board and helping with what they can.
“I think it is important to participate and be involved with the community,” Peggy said. “It is something I feel you should do –– call it good citizenship, I don’t know, I just get involved and help out wherever I can.” And when Peggy isn’t volunteering she is teaching at Standish-Sterling Area Schools. “I also work for Clayton Township as a zoning administrator, and I’ve been doing that for several years,” he said. “The board and planning commission are doing their best at running the township as efficiently as possible, and I’m lucky to be a volunteer with a lot of good people although my contribution might be small.” “I also designed our house. It took me three moths to do the drawings, then Peggy and I built it,” Bill said. Bill said he designed the house from scratch and it is an ENERGY STAR home. “We heat 4,000 square feet for about $1,200 a year, which is pretty good,” he said. “We had a smaller house that was 1,600 square feet that we heated, and I
wanted this house to be better and more efficient than the small one and it is. But I studied energy efficiency for 30 years.” Bill and Peggy are also very involved in the Experimental Aircraft Association in West Branch. “We help put on the fly-in in the spring, which is a free event for the community,” Bill said. “The kids have a great time at it. We try to bring in planes for people to look at and bring in different aircrafts to let the kids jump in and try out.” Bill said the fly-in is their biggest event every year. And if you have ever been to a fly-in, chances are you’ve seen Bill hanging out of the back of the helicopter dumping the candy during the candy drop. “It’s somewhat interesting and exciting to drop the candy out,” Bill said. “It’s a long way down. But Terry is a great pilot and I have no concerns when hanging out the side of the helicopter.” Bill and Peggy are also part of the Young Eagles program based out of Oshkosh, Wis.
According to the EAA Young Eagles brochure, the program gives young people ages 8-17 the opportunity to go flying in a general aviation airplane. “Peggy and I have flown 70 kids through the program and we work as a team,” he said. “She makes sure the paperwork is right, takes the kids to the plane and takes pictures of them when they come back.” “It’s a great program, especially for young people in a rural area,” Peggy said. “Some kids take four-wheeling or snowmobiling, that’s given, but I don’t think they think of flying –– it’s not necessarily a high-ticket activity. And there are a lot of opportunities out there as far as aviation goes, but I don’t think they tend to think of it.” “It’s nice to be involved,” Bill said. “I’m retired, Peggy isn’t yet, but it’s nice to have time to do this type of stuff and work with good people.” “We help the movers and shakers that get things done,” he said. “We are just simple volunteers that like to help, and we are fortunate to work with a lot of good people.”
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ReflecTions –– fall 2014 — Page 11
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W-P class of 1964 The Whittemore-Prescott graduating class of 1964 gathered for a group picture to celebrate their 50th class reunion Sept. 5.
Coordinator: Planstostayactive educatingandpreparingthepublic FroM Page 2 snow and cold. That resulted in a lot of flooding in the spring.” “When you have something that happens, a natural disaster or emergency, we open up the emergency management center with Ed,” McIntyre said. Rohn and other EMCs also work with the local school districts to make sure staff and students are ready to deal with a number of emergencies. “We partner with the schools to help them have plans in place,” he said. “School shooters are in the forefront in the news nationwide in recent years, and the Michigan State Police and Homeland Security Emergency Management division has been working closely with EMCs and the schools to make sure they are prepared and properly trained. I also work with the schools for the fire drills, their tornado drills and their lockdown drills.” Rohn’s dedication to his job has long been recognized locally, but in 2007 he was recognized statewide when the Michigan Emergency Management Association named him Emergency Management Coordinator of the Year for a community of 60,000 or less. Rohn said as long as he can continue to be effective he plans on being active in educating and preparing the public on emergencies and emergency response. “I think as long as my health holds out for me, I’d like to continue for a few more years,” he said. “I am trying to get more people involved with the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years, so when I am ready to step aside, they can pick up the torch and move it forward.”
Suisse: Keepsactiveduringretirement FroM Page 3 down there. I tell them, ‘When the lakes freeze over, let me know.’” Walter said he has been hunting since he shot his first squirrel at the age of 6. An avid bow, rifle and muzzle loading hunter, fisherman and former state champion snowmobile racer, Walter said he loves being outdoors, especially before sunrise. “Crack of dawn is a nice time of the day,” he said, noting he is out of bed before 4 a.m. every day to go to work or to one of his favorite hunting or fishing spots. This does not mean Walter has a difficult time sleeping through the night, however. He said he can rest easy because he attempts to live his life by the golden rule. “I can honestly say I don’t think I have an enemy in the world,” he said.
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Morrises: Sharehistoryoflife,love FroM Page 8 to walk around. We came inside the tent from the rain and didn’t notice all of my kids and friends there. They announced our names and all I could say was, ‘Wow.’” Having spent nearly every year at the fair since it opened — even camping out on the grounds when it first opened and having up to nine grandchildren showing pigs at once — the event is a special time of year for Phyllis. “It’s just great,” she said. “We had such a good time walking around with our crowns. We brought a lot of smiles on people that day. Maybe they were laughing at us, but we didn’t care. It was just so special for us.”
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Page 12 — ReflecTions –– fall 2014
Rose City Drug
Next to Family Fare 2640 North M-33 Rose City, MI
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989-718-3331 For medical supplies & equipment
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