GAMBIER — Sally Parsons of Gambier has a large folder of newspaper clippings about her father, Homer W. Fish, whose foresight and vision resulted in Oglebay Park near Wheeling, W.Va. From its beginning decades ago, the park — with “For Everyone Forever” as its longtime motto — has been funded only by donations and private funding.
Fish was born in Milwaukee, Wis., but his parents moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., when he was 2 years old. Parsons and her brother, H. David Fish, were born in Grand Rapids. When their father was named Superintendent of Parks for the city of Wheeling in 1935, the family moved there, settling in on the grounds of Oglebay Park.
Cleveland industrialist Earl W. Oglebay of Oglebay, Norton and Co., who died in 1926, willed his country estate — called Waddington Farm — to the people of Wheeling “for as long as they shall operate it for public recreation.” The city, having only modest funds, began to develop the estate, but was stymied when the Great Depression took hold of the country.
Nonetheless, volunteers planned programs that offered picnics, dances, gardening, music and drama, all of which captured the public’s interest. The Civilian Conservation Corps established a camp in the park and built picnic sites, tennis courts, an outdoor theater, swimming pool and nature trails, and expanded the golf course.
“He [Fish] was very successful in hooking up with the WPA [Works Progress Administration], too,” said Parsons. “They built the beginning parts of the park.”
The Fish children had the privilege of growing up on the country estate that was soon to become a nationally famous public park.
“The vision for the park was my dad’s,” said Parsons. “My dad was very modest, very humble, but was so recognized that President and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt came to see the park. I remember them being there when I was 9 or 10.
“We lived on the grounds, in one of the gatehouses,” said Parsons. “The staff lived in the residences where the farmhands had lived. My dad found jobs at the park for some of the people who had worked for Mr. Oglebay. And he knew how to make money go a long way ... the first cabins there were built out of old telephone poles.
“My dad and I were very close,” Parsons said, “and he was very active. He ‘lived the park’ 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If we were visiting someone and came home at night, no matter how late it was, we had to take a tour of the park to make sure everything was OK. He liked working directly on projects. It was difficult for him to be in an office or at a desk.”
The first job of Parsons’ brother, David, was on the park garbage truck.
“And when I was 11,” said Parsons, “he put me to work for 15 cents an hour as the switchboard operator, and I thought I was the wealthiest person in the world.
“My dad had a lot of prestige, but very little money. But we always had enough for what we needed. He had other job offers, but wouldn’t take them. His commitment was to Oglebay Park.”
Fish served as park superintendent for 25 years before he died of cancer at age 59 in February 1961.
“He was given two weeks to two months to live,” said Parsons, “but he decided he wasn’t ready to die so he lived three more years. He wouldn’t take any pain medications until the very end, to keep his mind clear. He wanted to stay at Oglebay and finish what he had started.”
That kind of will and determination marked Fish’s life. He made public parks and recreation development his life-long mission, beginning with a high-school job as a lifeguard and playground director for the Grand Rapids Recreation Department. After graduation from Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University), he completed graduate study at New York University.
“That’s where he learned to design golf courses and swimming pools,” said Parsons.
Fish also served as recreation director in Grand Haven, Mich.; Salisbury, N.C.; New York City; and in Steubenville. But he earned his fame by envisioning what Oglebay Park could be and carrying out that vision.
H.C. Ogden, publisher of the Wheeling News-Register, wrote for the newspaper after Fish’s death, “If ever a man saw his dreams come true, it was Homer Fish. But his dreams were not realized by wishful thinking and fanciful miracles. He saw to it that they became real things, for Homer was blessed with a rare blend of two outstanding talents — vision and execution.”
Fish’s obituary, published in the News-Register, eulogized him as “A man who combined an abiding love of beauty in nature with unflinching devotion to double-entry bookkeeping, Homer Fish saw no contradiction at all in the unusual blend.”
In 1963, Parsons completed her master’s degree at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, set about looking for teaching jobs, discovered Gambier and moved to the village.
“It’s halfway between Ann Arbor and Wheeling,” she said with a smile. “It has country living like I was used to. My first job here was at East Knox schools, teaching a business class.”
Parsons taught at Mount Vernon High School three years and at what is now the Knox County Career Center for 23 years. She retired the first time in 1992, then went back to work at Moundbuilders Guidance Center, from which she retired in 2007 after 15 years. She also managed the ECHO Talk Line for many years. She is proud of her father.
“Dad developed Oglebay Park from a country farm of 750 acres to a model municipal park of over 1,000 acres,” said Parsons. “There’s no place comparable to Oglebay in the United States, and to do all that at no cost to the taxpayers .... it’s really something.”
