The Mail-Journal, Volume 27, Number 19, Milford, Kosciusko County, 22 June 1988 — Page 5

"CRUZIN AROUND 'CUSE"

T’S NOT EASY writing this column on thieve of the death of its creator. Arch founded a “tradition in

reading’* with Cruzin’ Around ’Cuse. It has been said the Cruzin’ is the highest read column in The Mail-Journal. Folks turn to it to find out what’s happening, to whom, and why. You will find more about its history in, the eulogy written by his son, Ron, in this issue. . s ■ Our first impulse was to “close”’ the column for this one issue; however, we were reminded that Arch — that inveterate newspaperman — would have none of that. In the past, when notfeable citizens have passed on, he visited with their friends and gathered “remembrances” of that person. With that purpose in mind we “hit the streets.” Remembrances Os Arch The early morning cpffee crowd was quietly talking. None of the friendly badgering was going on today as each reached back into his memories, and some shared them vocally. /. Merl Smith remembered the time he and Maggie invited Arch and Della for a Hungarian dinner, knowing that they had just returned from a trip to Hungary. Arch was so taken by the fact that the Smiths had a phone in their bathroom that he went home and had one installed in his! Jay Peffley will miss the lively debates — as will all of the group of friends — wherein Arch would often take the opposing view just to stimulate conversation. Jay also spoke of how he and Arch would “flip” to see who would pay for the coffee — and that Arch held the honors for most wins (15 in a row!). According to Jay, Arch felt badly about winning the flip so many times and so invited Jay to r coffee “on him.” However, oh this occasion, the coffee server. Red Marlin, waived the Re! The “Press 1” license plate on his white Cadillac was not mentioned, but that was a singular symbol of Arch’s devotion to the newspaper business. Bob Knudsen pointed to the chair at the west end of the table, where Arch always used to sit, and declared firmly that they were going to "retire” the chair and place a commemorative plaque on it. My own memories are of him holding court in the Syracuse office, his voice booming out as I walked in the door, “Jeanne, what’s happening?” Who could withhold information from this friendly man who was so genuinely interested in what was “happening” in his world? He also made things happen — like one morning when he suggested that I should become a Sesqui mayoral candidate because there weren’t any women in.the race. He added to his profession of faith in my race by offering the paper’s sponsorship. His faith in my writing ability led to some guest spots in the Cruzin’ column while he and Della were off on their travels — and to filling in on a longer term basis when he underwent various hospitalizations and treatments. During these times Arch has always added his own signature stories to the column, giving mine , priority in his’gentlemanly fashion. Cruzin’ will continue, to the best of our abilities, in the tradition that Arch established through the years. This is our tribute to Arch the man, friend, and mentor. According to Ernie Rogers, the only negative bout Arch was that he was a Democrat — but that he had been a Republican before “economics” moved him to the other ring to the fact that newspapers had to declare their political leanings and that political information and advertising had to be placed equally

,\ '^ { i‘ t _ ‘'JgJßK^fcgSjtSyW^y^^ r hfeu." *- " .-« i'K • As *^lWß.lMi^ira» l w \ ' ••■•■■ ,’. 7 WHHH * 1-0 ■A' " Q •<_ s ■ Jft* j ■ * IB JggEWRMF A ». GOING, GOING, GONE — Frequent travelers of the Milford-Syracuse Road were able to watch the progress of the demolition of the barn at the Dan Beer farm. The barn, over 100 years old, was severely damaged by strong winds on May 1 and May 8. At that time Beer noted the damage was so extensive it may be torn down. c " Workers began last Tuesday afternoon tearing down the old barn with completion over the past weekend. Debbie Beer stated this ftioraing that some of the barn beams were salvaged and will be used in the new barn. Construction on the modern barn will begin next week. Work still needing to be completed includes leveling off the site. The top photo shows the early demolition of the barn, while the bottom photo shows the site following completion of the r*tln|> (Photo by Deb Petterson)

in a Republican and a Democratic newspaper within the county — there already was a Republican newspaper... Terry Skaggs felt that it was important for people to know that although Arch often spoke out against such entities as the school board, his newspaper probably carries more photos and information about school activities than any in the state. Ernie summed up the feelings of the group with, “He was a good man — we’ll miss him.” —3o—- — AUTO Sales is planning a grand opening in the very near future, according to manager, Mac Millington. A subsidiary of Steve Ross Chevrolet, Warsaw, the local business has been open at the former Buzz Keck building for over 6 months. A familiar face can be seen in the form of salesman. Buck Sanders. —o— IN TIME for the summer trade, Designs, Etc. II is officially open for business in the Village. Located in the former Wawasee Realty office, this is the second store opened by owner, Jennifer Leeper — number one being in Fort Wayne. Welcome! —o— STATE ROAD 13 is not being plowed up to plant corn — the surface is being scraped and replaced for easier traveling for people and vehicles alike. The work is moving along quickly and smoothly. —o— DON’T BURN anything — no matter what! That’s what the Governor’s ban on open burning says, and that includes semi-contained fires in trash burning barrels. In fact, another newspaper reports that a child playing with home fireworks started a fire that destroyed three homes in a Fort Wayne neighborhood. The entire state is suffering from unusually severe dry conditions. Don’t tempt fate! —o—e THE SYRACUSE Jaycees will have State Jaycee President, Darrell Voelker, as guest at their membership night on July 6 at the Eagles lodge. The public is invited to learn more about the Jaycees, and to consider membership. Local Jaycees President, Mike Flumbum, has issued a challenge to his members: If everyone brings a guest to the July 6 meeting, he’ll spend the weekend in a rowboat in the middle of Wawasee. There’s an incentive to fill the lodge! This young club has several community projects planned or underway. The proceeds from the sale of their coupon book will go to finance the “Second Annual Family Games’” scheduled for July 6 at Syracuse’s Lakeside Park. With registration at 5 p.m. and games at 6, the five events include obstacle course, 3-legged race, spoon race, horseshoes, and balloon toss. Every participant will get a frisbee; there will be Ist, 2nd tend 3rd place ribbons for each of the age categories, as well as overall trophies for each age category. Coupon book sale proceeds will also be used towards construction of a skate board track. The club is working with the Lakeland Youth Center on this and plans clinics, and competitions — with judges selected from participant peer groups. Also in conjunction with the Youth Center, the Jaycees will sponsor and chaperon an outdoor teen dance at the facility on July 23 — even going’so far as providing two of their members as DJ’s for the occasion, Roger Shipley and Mike Murray! —o— RUN OR walk, whatever, but join the 11th annual Flotilla Road Race on Saturday, July 2, 8 a.m., at Lakeside Park. The runs will be 8 and 3.3 miles and the walk will be a 3.3 "fun walk.” As a special incentive to register early, the first 250 entrants will receive a custom-designed T-shirt by Butler Signs upon payment of fees.

An eulogy to Arch Baumgartner

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the eulogy delivered by Ronald L. Baumgartner, president of The Papers Incorporated and only son of the late Archibald Eugene (“Arch”) Baumgartner, publisher of The Mail-Journal and chairman of the board of The Papers Incorporated. The eulogy was delivered at Arch’s funeral on Tuesday, June 21.) Several months ago in the mid stage of his illness, my father mentioned that he wanted his son to take part in his memorial services. So I offer this eulogy at his request and because I think it is the highest tribute that I can pay to him. This will not be easy and I may stumble along the way before I finish, but stand by me for a few minutes while I tell you my thoughts of this man who served as a benchmark for my social and moral conscience and for my life’s aspirations. A man who I have loved and respected for all my 44 years. And if I make you want to laugh or make you want to cry then do it; for this memorial service is meant to be an outpouring of emotions for a husband, a father, a grandfather and, most of all, to a friend who has left us. I knew that I would stand before you, that I would have to be part of this service the day that I learned of the finality of my father’s illness. I began writing notes of our life together almost immediately, a trait I picked up from him. My way, I guess, of dealing with the harsh reality of his illness. And the thoughts I offer you during this short time are meant to be a tribute, a celebration of the life of Arch Baumgartner. It has never ceased to amaze me at the great number of people my father knew. He was certainly one of the most easily recognized personalities in the area; a recognition built over a lifetime on a solid belief in participation in community events. With the exception of recent months as his illness slowed him down, it was commonplace for him to attend Wawasee basketball games, graduation exercises, county fair ribbon cutting events, open houses and the like. He felt the newspaper business demanded a high visibility. My father held a real interest in our communities and he felt strongly about community involvement: • His organization of the Milford Sesquicentennial Parade a couple of years ago which ended up involving a good number of us from the shop. • His life-long membership and support of the Milford Lions Club. • His annual attendance and support of the North Webster Mermaid Festival, the Milford Citizen of the Year Banquet, the Syracuse 4th of July Flotilla Road Race are but a few. The road race again corralled a number of shop employees to help pull it off. In fact, my father seemed to have a talent for great ideas that required the assistance of family and friends to see it through to an end. My father was one who easily made friends, quick with a smile and a pat on the back, of both e young and old, of the famous and not so famous. His ability to communicate seemed to know no age limits. Visitors during his final days in the hospital ranged from a youthful Jamie Beer, the nine-year-old son of Jim and Debbie Beer to 95-year-old Theo Beer and his wife Naomi. He counted as his friends people like former US Senator Birch Bayh, US Senator Richard Lugar and former Indiana Governor Otis Bowen to the common people like you and me who live out our lives in the small communities of the Lakeland area. In our office lobby in Milford hangs a plaque with this inscription, “If I could live my life over, I could wish no better than to spend it in the newspaper profession. I have found journalism gratifying and fulfilling, where one can render a real public service.” My father penned these words in March of this year and, I think, tell quite simply, the whole story of Arch Baumgartner and his professional career. My father was a man who stood by his chosen profession, journalism, th<e written word, all of his life. • He read. He studied two and three daily newspapers a day. Sunday was not Sunday without the South Bend Tribune. • He loved to work crossword puzzles and he knew which area papers carried the easy ones and which the tough ones. •An avid reader, he had shelves of books and a dictionary by his chair at home at all times. • He loved to discover new words. Learn their meaning and use them. To that end he found a real confidant in Esther Dunning of our proofreading department. More than once, he would exclaim to me how great Esther was at catching typos and questioning Sentence structure. • He was constantly receiving

books as presents or on loan and recommending books to others. My father was a news “junkie.” He saw news stories and ideas in comments from people that the rest of us missed. If we bought him a shirt for his birthday or Christmas, it had to have a pocket. After all, a notepad and a pencil were the tools of his trade. The 6:30 evening news, and on Sunday nights, 60 Minutes were a prerequisite of his week. Walter Cronkite and, after his retirement, Dan Rather, were his Champions of TV journalism. It was only several weeks ago, while he was still bedridden at home, that we discussed establishing a scholarship fund in his name for a Wawasee High School student going on to college in Journalism or English. I know that each spring, as this scholarship is presented at Awards Day, his family will feel the warmth of his nearness. On Tuesday, January 3, 1984, four years ago, my father attended the Syracuse-Wawasee Rotary Club meeting at the invitation of a club member. Two Wawasee high school students appeared before the assembled group to explain SADD-Students Against Drunk Driving and its goals and objectives. Later that day he wrote a simple, short editorial, “Don’t Count The Young Folks Out.” This editorial appeared in The MailJournal the next day and was later chosen as the American Legion Auxiliary’s choice for the national Golden Press Award as “America’s Best Local Editorial” in the interest of youth. Later that year, he was flown to Salt Lake City, Utah, to accept the award. This honor was certainly one of the crowning jewels of his newspaper career. To him, it was an honor to sit on the same dais with comedian Bob Hope and President Ronald Reagan, both men also being honored. I think my father had a certain amount of entrepreneurship in him. He was a man of thought and vision. As a young man, he delivered ice to farmers and businesses, working for his brothers, Wilbur and Herb. Both brothers long gone now. He told of starting an ice route in the Dewart Lake area on his own and with great success, much to the chagrin of Lloyd Disher of Syracuse who had first served the area, but with no great regularity. He saw an opportunity and went after it. Those earnings helped him with college expenses to the University of Michigan. The same entrepreneurship later lead him to purchasing The Milford Mail in the summer of 1939. He had just completed his third year of college and was home for the summer. A few days later found him the young and completely inexperienced publisher of the local weekly newspaper. He had a total of 600 subscribers and facilities to hand set type ... one letter at a time. The former publishers helped for a few weeks, then dad was on his own. But he learned fast, through necessity. Early years in the newsjfeper business were rough. Long hours and low pay. For him and my mother, a newspaper at the end of the work week was their ultimate reward. They later moved from a fiveroom apartment above the shop to the old home place in Milford where his parents had lived until their passing. He was born in that house and lived the rest of his life there. For years, one of the most important events in his work week was the composition, the putting together of The Mail-Journal. Every Wednesday morning was devoted to The Mail-Journal front page. He never lost sight or interest in this sole task. From the days when The Mail-Journal was about our only business to today when The Mail-Journal is part of

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a much larger and vastly more complex business. He felt that one of the responsibilities of a newspaper was to have an opinion — right or wrong, good or bad — an opinion. Take a side on issues of importance to the community we serve. He felt that his newspaper should reflect the community and be about people. “Cruzin Around Cuse,” an übiquitous little column, started by Jack Elam, then manager of a local savings & loan company, and carried on by my father for the past 25 years, became his trademark, indeed, part of his very essence. Certainly “Cruzin” was what he was most recognized for. We always considered that column to be the highest read piece in The Mail-Journal. A column that was and still is, required reading for many Syracusians, had many sources. Friends and townsmen would pull my father aside and say, “Get this in Cruzin.” “Cruzin,” a constant source of pride to dad, was also a constant concern' to him. More than once he would say, “Boy, here it is Monday already and I don’t have my column finished.” Since January of this year, Jeanne Gardiner has taken over the reigns of “Cruzin” and with her own joy for writing and legion of supporters, has helped continue what has become a staple of our Syracuse community. “Cruzin” lead him to a daily ritual of escaping the Milford office about nine each morning in time to hit the Syracuse Case and catch his friends and cronies for the latest happenings or a bit of good hearted verbal sparing over recent actions by the town or school board or the likelihood of Jesse Jackson becoming President of the United States. This same routine repeated itself most afternoons at the Three Flags Drive-In across the road. I’m sure my father holds the record for trips made between Milford and Syracuse, the two main communities we serve, traveling the Milford-Syracuse road 2-3-4 times a day; a trip to Syracuse Saturday morning to see how papers were selling in Thornburg’s and Augsburger’s; perhaps a trip back that night for a picture or a ballgame. My father sustained an interest in life, in people, throughout his life. Even in his later years when many of us take to the easy chair and give up responsibilities, he maintained a peaked interest in life. Shortly after learning that he had bone cancer during an annual check up last year, that the prostrate cancer he thought he had escaped 7 or 8 years earlier, had spread, he commented to me that there was so much happening right now, in this old world, that he didn’t want to miss it. He lamented during those troubled times that “if I were only 20 years younger.” I never told him but I would gladly have given him 20 years of my life — no questions asked. And I think those 7 or 8 years were his golden years. He and my mother took advantage of them with travel to many corners of the world. Perhaps most memorable were the trips with grandchildren: • A 1984 three-week study mission to China with our oldest daughter, Criss, then a sophomore in high school. • A 1983 trip to the Caribbean with granddaughter, Jennifer, and my sister's son, Jason. • And a family trip to Europe in 1984 with everyone except son-in-law Mike Yoder and myself. Both of us left at home to keep the wheels turning. You know, I never felt I quite measured up to my father’s image. Oh, my mind is probably a little more attuned to the nuts and bolts, the mechanics of our business. But what he had was a

Wed., June 22,1988 — THE MAIL-JOURNAL

manner all his own in dealing with people. A clasp of the hand, an arm around a shoulder, an unusually warm and friendly greeting. The things that really matter in life. Not many of us possess these qualities, but he did... he did. As I wrote these notes that lonely evening last year, a number of meaningful events from my youth flashed back to me: •Os a Sunday at the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. He cared nothing for fast cars, but he thought that I would enjoy it. • Os beating him to a raft anchored at Milford Beach way off shore as a kid, only years later did I realize that I had won that race by default. • A prodding to stay in college even though I thought two years of Spanish and ROTC were enough. • A constant fan at my high school basketball games even thought, at best, I was only an average player. • Os the time I received a brand new Schwinn bike for Christmas and promptly rode it into Sharp Hardware’s plate glass window. My idea was to cut and run. After all, it was Sunday afternoon ad no one was on Main Street. Who would know? Well, my dad knew because he

Letters to the editor

Who will take his place?

Ever since Arch’s terminal illness and death, I have wondered who will take his place in our community. Who will speak out forthrightly for the taxpayer when assessments, fees, and levies are exorbitant? Who will read the fine print of contracts and long-term obligations and ex-

The world of community journalism in Indiana and the nation is certainly diminished by the death of Archibald E. Baumgartner. And so is our own community. For Arch was a booster, a builder, a man of positive attitudes and the energetic disposition to put these attitudes into effect. The Mail-Journal, The Papers Incorporated, and the large and successful commercial printing business that calls Milford its home are a tribute to his intelligence and energy. And he was a good man, a nice guy, besides. He made thousands of friends in his career as a community journalist, and he never forgot a one of them. He believed in the traditional things: home, church, family, kindness, hard work. He was a exemplary person.

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was along and the next day he told Jack Sharp of the accident and paid him the SBO to replace the window. I still remember the price because I heard it more than once. • or finally, of the time as a 12or 14-year-old that two or three of us broke out a couple hundred dollars worth of windows in the old Milford High School. A raging story settled on The Milford Mail front page that week. “Catch Those Juvenile Delinquents.” And, sure enough, they did. One was the son of the publisher. -But true to the principals my parents subscribed to, the full account (including the names of the culprits) was reported on the front page the following Thursday. These are principals that I try to follow today. Lessons taught to a son, not without embarrassment and humiliation on the part of the parents. If I could direct your emotions, your minds, I would not want you to sorrow in his passing. But I would want you to rejoice in his life and times. For I think that the world is a better place because he was here. He brought an exuberance and a joy for living that should stand as an example to all of us.

plain them to us in large print on his editorial page? Who will be as generous with his means to finance school, church, and community activities? Who will be as faithful in attending service club meetings to offer his support and assistance with their projects? Yes, who will take his place? Berniece H. Dwyer

A tribute

He was also a prophet somewhat without honor in his own country. The Mail-Journal itself was an innovation that came about when he realized that one good newspaper could serve the Syracuse and Milford communities better than two average ones. He explored new printing processes when they were still new. The aggressive marketing tactics that he, and Della, and Ron pursued led to prosperity, and to jobs for dozens of local residents. I will miss Arch, both as a colleague in the newspaper business and as a friend in the community. The impact of his life will be felt for years to come. Wiley W. (Bill) Spurgeon, Jr. (Spurgeon is executive editor of The Muncie Star and Muncie Evening Press.)