I was born in this town, Niles, Ohio. I was born at home, 371 West Park Avenue, and I’ve lived here all my life except for being in the service. My father had a store in downtown Niles. Sort of a department store, little bit of everything. Things for the house, a little bit of ready-to-wear clothing. My mother was never educated, but she was the smartest woman I ever knew. My wife didn’t like it when I'd say that.
I was second of eight children. Four boys and four girls. I went to St. Stephen’s grade school. I didn’t go to Catholic high school because they didn’t have one in Niles. I went to Niles McKinley.
I grew up in the Depression. It was rough. You did without a lot. There were days when my father took in about $10 for the day. But I overshadowed that by continuing to be active in high school. I was head of the speech team. I was in theater. We did three or four plays. One play each year. A ham, you know. I finished third in a class of 250.
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[I attended John Carroll because the father who was] second in command at St. Stephen took me up there and got me in at a reduced rate and got me approved for financial aid. And that’s how I got there.
He was the one in charge of the baseball teams, stuff like that. He had a coupe. He’d put five or six of us in a coupe. Can you imagine what that was like? We didn’t have to go very far, but he’d pick me up at home and we’d go out to the park, and there’d be a game or we’d practice. He was the one who steered me to John Carroll.
I worked at the ticket office in college. I sold tickets at basketball games and other functions. Tuition was $600 a year.
I studied the ordinary classical stuff. English, history, four years of Latin. I don’t think any one teacher was better than the other. They were all good. Fr. Kiefer was the Latin instructor. Real small guy. He couldn’t have been more than four feet eleven. And he was real skinny. On the other hand, the rector of Bernet Hall was Fr. Murphy, and he was big. Just the opposite. He liked to eat.
Fr. Pickel was probably the most brilliant professor in my day. He was an elderly guy but he was smart. He did chemistry, physics, stuff like that. In those days, they were all priests, for the most part. We had an English instructor, Dr. Grauel. There was Fr. McQuade. I remember him because he was so pious. He taught religion. I remember all those guys. That’s 60-some years ago.
The biggest thing at John Carroll was the religion. I never lost my religion. To this day I still practice it. When you go there, and you see who the faculty is and all, you wonder at people like the president, Edward Horne, and Father McCue, the dean. Those guys were brilliant. They were the best you could get.
At John Carroll, I was head of the Little Theater Society. We put on some pretty good plays, in cooperation with Notre Dame College. They provided the women because we didn’t have any. I had some good friends who went there. [We performed] Little Father of the Wilderness. The other one was I Killed the Count. I was the ham, you know.
I was captain of the 150-pound football team. We were undefeated.
All in all, I enjoyed my four years at John Carroll. My big problem was getting back and forth to home. My folks had a car, but my father didn’t drive. My mother drove the car. It was very difficult for her to come up there to pick me up. So I hitchhiked. A couple of times I was stuck in this place on Rt. 422, Welshfield, halfway between here and Cleveland. I stopped there three or four times. And cold? Oh…
Funny, in those days you could get a ride. Today, nobody would pick anyone up.
My brother Joe went to JCU, but he quit after two years. He ended up in Chicago. Done very well. My older brother, Simon, he went to St. Vincent’s in Latrobe [Pennsylvania]. Imagine how far that was.
My final year, I was president of the student council. I graduated from Carroll magna cum laude. I was BMOC [big man on campus].
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When I finished John Carroll, they pulled me out and I went right to the navy. After I got my commission as a second lieutenant, I went overseas to New Guinea. And from there I went to the Philippines, all through that area. I was really active in the war.
I went to Notre Dame [University] for training. It was beautiful because that was the year they won the national championship and I saw all those games free. I was there for 90 days. After commissioning, I had a 30-day grace period before I had to go, and off they sent me to New Guinea.
I was in charge of a ship, an LCT [landing craft tank]. It had a 15-man crew. I had a good boatswain’s mate. He ran the boat until I caught on to what I was supposed to do. I’m from Niles, Ohio. What the hell do I know about ships?
My ship was maybe 100 feet long. Landing craft. We’d go onto the beach. Drop the ramps. We’d bring in jeeps, personnel – take from the big ships to the shore. That was our job. That was some experience.
I was in about five battles. We didn’t go right in. We were backup support. When the first people go in, we’re right behind ’em with the supplies and everything. In Mindanao, I was able to get off the ship and go up to the Philippines and go around there after the Japanese were gone. And you’d be surprised the Japanese money just lying all over the place.
I was in the Philippines when I came home on leave to San Diego on a liberty ship. It took 30 days on the water. When I got there, they said, “You return here in one month.” So I went home and married my sweetheart, Mary Christopher. I met her in the University and dated her in Cleveland. She was a student at St. Alexis hospital. She started going to John Carroll for classes. That’s where I met her. She passed away 10 years ago.
We were engaged before I went into the service. When I came home, I said we might as well get married. We’ll go out to California, spend our honeymoon while I’m getting ready to go back over there. When I got there, they changed my orders [because the war had ended]. I didn’t have to go back out. So I was out of the service in the next couple of months. They offered me all kinds of stuff to stay in, because I had a college education.
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[After leaving the navy,] I went to law school right away. Did it in two years. Finished in 1948. That was at Reserve [now Case Western Reserve University]. I enjoyed it. It was a good school.
After I graduated, I immediately opened an office in downtown Niles, in the Niles Bank Building. I had three rooms there. Got involved with the city, the prosecutor’s office, law director’s office. I did prosecuting and the law. I did that for about six years.
I never had any qualms about coming back home. You walk down the street, everybody knows you.
I was the law director of this town here for about 22 years. That helped the income. It wasn’t big, but gave me coverage for my hospitalization. Protected me for my pension. I put in 22 years with the city, and 30 with the county.
I got active in politics, although I hadn’t intended to. It sort of comes with the territory when you’re in a small town. I was the law director for 20-some years. Good part of my income. And I got involved with the Democratic Party. Went to a lot of their stuff. I went to Kennedy’s inauguration. I went to a lot of the Democratic conventions.
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I ran for judge because I’m used to running things. In high school, I was active. In college, definitely. And when I was on board ship, I ran the ship. When I got off the ship, I wasn’t running anything. So I figured I’d better start running things.
I had the biggest courtroom in the county. It seats 300 people.
I never had an opponent. First time I ran, the person I was running against got offered another job. From then on I was unopposed. Then the age factor came in. You can’t run for judge when you get near 70.
My John Carroll education helped me a lot as a judge. The courses you take there – ethics, logic -- are the kind that develop your mind.
It was very difficult for me to sentence someone to death. But when you come right down to it and you see what happened, you have to follow the law. Don’t sit on the bench if you’re not going to follow the law.
I never held office in the bar association, but I was always active.
I’ve been off the bench for a while. I sat by assignment until I hit 80. Once you hit 80, you can’t do it any more. So I’ve been off the bench since 2002.
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My wife was Mary Christopher. Terrific woman. Her death was unexpected.
We had eight children. Four and four. The first two were girls, which was good because they could help their mother when they got a little older. The youngest is 46 now, and the oldest is 62.
I maintained my residence at West Park Avenue until after the war. When I came back, my wife and I relocated to 403 Hogarth Avenue in Niles. At that time, it was probably the number one place for raising families in Niles.
My sons Christopher and Bob practice law in my old office. They have 12 rooms. I had three.
I have 19 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. I’ve been lucky. I’ve had good health. I’ve got exercise equipment here. A bike I get on when I think of it.
I’m still a practicing Catholic. Go to Mass most Sundays at St. Stephen. It’s been there since 1912. It’s one block from the home where I was born.
I have no complaints. My family is great. I give my wife credit, not me. She was top shelf. Hard to believe she’s been gone 10 years. I miss her a lot.
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I haven’t been back to John Carroll for a couple of years. I used to go pretty regularly when I was in better shape. My wife and I enjoyed going to [Reunion]. She knew a lot of people in my class. They keep calling me to come back, but now it’s getting a little bit tougher. If some occasion should arise that I would go there, I’d probably get someone to drive me.
My advice to students is to go to the best university you can afford. Places like John Carroll and some of the other universities around here. You can’t replace the education you get there. And devote as much time as you can to your studies. You don’t get it free. What you learn there you never forget. After college, I’d tell them to go to professional schools. Doctor, lawyer, engineer.
The best advice I can give anybody is to make sure you pursue some activity that you feel you enjoy.
I don’t think the world is a better place today than when I was young. There isn’t the camaraderie. People are so commercial. Everybody’s interested in making a buck.
I have absolutely no qualms about stating that John Carroll University set me on the right road. No question about it. I’ve been very successful politically – local, county, state. You mention my name anywhere in Ohio to someone who’s been in the game for a long time, they know me. I always valued my word. I learned this at John Carroll.
As told to Jeffrey Bendix
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