My Jeanie (Jeanette Weddington Kegley) made me promise to dedicate the day yesterday, to helping her trim the inside of the house for Christmas. I just hadn't got around to it.
Early in the day though our good young friend, Rich Lakeman, Gib Lakeman's son and a basketball teammate of our son, Jay's at Westerville High School, stopped by. He came to look at the chimney he had rebuilt for us a few years ago. A neighbor had noticed what might be wind damage from a recent windstorm (80 mph winds). Rich observed that it was not damage, rather it was design to have the flashing at the top corners of the flashing between the roof and the brick to cause the waters to flare out away from the remainder of the flashing to avoid possible water damage. Afterwards, Jeanie and I sat with Rich and coffee for around three hours of prized conversation.
I occasionally see Rich in the neighborhood and he hardly fails to mention "rounder and better" in our conversations. Rich credits me for passing on a nugget I heard at PHS from the great teacher and coach, Bill Rohr.
Bill Rohr''s rare coaching mistake was in cutting me from his basketball try-outs for our beloved Trojans. I could have become so much better with his coaching. The real mistake was mine for not being good enough.
Coach Rohr had been culturally blessed at the feet of Paul Brown, football coach of Massilon High School, Ohio State Universtiy, and the Cleveland Browns. Coach Brown made professional football into a science in my humble opinion.
Coach Bill Rohr may have been a better teacher than a coach, although he was among the best coaches Portsmouth High School ever had. He became the best I, and many others, ever had at PHS, among faculties of great teachers. I had him for "Civics" or "Social Problems" or some such class. Coach Rohr was so good at bringing each of his students into class discussion. He passed so many nuggets on to us students.
I laid one, and no doubt more, upon Rich as he rode with me to watch Jay play in a Miami University of Ohio JV game one Saturday. Coach-teacher Rohr had told us students: "Whatever you do in life- I don't care if it is digging holes- Dig yours rounder and better and somebody will notice." Gib's son, Rich, took the advice very literally.
Rich wasn't interested in going to college., He became a tradesman, a brick-layer, and did his jobs better. He developed his own sub-contractor business and has helped build many of the finer homes in the Columbus and the New Albany area. He has a rich career and good family with wife, Nancy, and daughter Kelly. Gib's widow, Margaret (Lehman), has also benefitted much from the four sons and one daughter of hers and Gib's, here in Westerville. Rich is among their finest.
We had lost time in getting Jeanie's decorations up, but enjoyed the time with Rich with more than a little remembering of Gib's Portsmouth stories. Jeanie and I essentially finished the inside decorating a little later.
If I have been lucky, and I know that I have, it is the absorption of such culture from such dedicated teachers. Gib also taught and coached many years here in the Columbus high Schools. I have taught and tutored at Columbus State Community College for twenty-five years, in addition to my Metallurgical Engineeriong career.
Rich has trained many young brick-layers and he has often repeated the "rounder and better" advice of Bill Rohr. It has not hurt anybody to hear.
At this Christmas season, may this particular nugget, from Paul Brown and Bill Rohr, go on forever. Most readers of my blog are Portsmouth Ohio people and I would hope that the children and grandchildren of my compatriots will accept this as a cultural Christmas gift.
Sam
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