Once, during an early morning trip to the Bluffton Hospital ER, I heard Ropp Triplett’s voice in the room next door. I was in Room 1. He was in Room 2.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
His reply: I have a part in a play at the Bluffton sesquicentennial. Someone told me to break a leg. So, I did.”
Did you hear the story involving Mary Emma’s hand-held electric mixer? Ropp and Mary Em’s sons, Larry and Roger, and some friends were flying a kite in the field at the end of Sunset Drive. The kite flew up so high they couldn’t reel it in. Here’s where the electric mixer comes in, as Ropp’s solution to the problem. (I’ve used poetic license in this story, but it’s still a pretty good story.)
Did you ever see Ropp drink a cup of coffee? Nope. Bet you didn’t know that the last time – maybe the only time – he ever drank a cup. The year was 1945. I know, because I asked him.
I’ve been in enough early-morning meetings with Ropp to recognize that coffee simply wasn’t on his food pyramid.
You know about Eastern Standard Time. Do you know about Ropp Triplett Time? RTT is 10 minutes faster than EST. His son, Greg, explained that one to me. It explains why Ropp was always the first person at an event.
Beyond those funny stories, Ropp had a serious side. He took Bluffton very seriously.
Few realize the deep pockets he had for our town. Despite his generosity, he took the anonymous route whenever he could. We will probably never know how many small-business start-ups he encouraged.
Plus, you won’t find his name where it belongs - on the top of the list of donors on the cornerstones of many Bluffton institutions.
Examples:
• BFR Sports and Fitness
• Bluffton Public Library
• Bluffton Hospital
• Bluffton Center for Entrepreneurs
• Gift of Giving light show
The Triplett Bike Path, of which Ropp and Mary Em were the major players, is named so only because the village insisted. Ropp would have preferred calling it simply the Bluffton Bike Path.
Every new BCE client received a one-year membership to the Bluffton Area Chamber of Commerce, paid for by Ropp. Many of those businesses continue as members. They never knew Ropp paid the first invoice, which lit their spark of interest in Bluffton. Instead, their membership was “a gift from the chamber.”
And, we should not forget Ropp’s role in the aftermath of the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado. The tornado was the greatest natural disaster this community experienced in the 20th century. The person who coordinated the cleanup was Bluffton’s greatest philanthropist of the 20th century, Ropp Triplett.
If there was ever a man for all seasons for Bluffton, Ohio, it was you, Ropp.
Thanks from all of us.
