By Fred Steiner
We all know Stan Schneck was “Mr. Pandora.”
There’s more to that title than you might think. Stan's older brother, Don, passed the title on to Stan, and Stan carried it well.
Don and Stan’s father, Clarence, then might as well be considered the Father of two Mr. Pandora’s. In an earlier generation, Clarence was an important heartbeat of the Pandora community.
Stan was about as Swiss as you could get – having a Schneck father and a Burkhalter mother and holding a life-long St. John Mennonite membership.
He knew the neighborhood pretty well. While he may not have spoken the Swiss dialect, he could manage most other Pandora dialects.
Consider: He was at home with athletics and music, previously serving on the Pandora-Gilboa Athletic Boosters and Pandora-Gilboa Music Boosters.
Add to that he was a 33-year employee of First National Bank, former Pandora mayor, former clerk-treasurer and a member of the Pandora EMS. At the time of his death he was village administrator.
Stan was larger than Pandora.
He was a previous board member of the Bluffton Community Hospital, Bluffton-Pandora Rotary Club, Putnam County Community Improvement Corp. board and Port Authority of Northwestern Ohio Board.
Perhaps his proudest membership was with the Pandora-Bluffton Campus Life. His interest and participation in that organization no doubt went back to his high school days.
Speaking of high school, you’ll find Stan’s photo on one of P-G’s best-ever basketball teams. He was manager of a team that went to the Class A districts in the mid-1960s. That means the team advanced past Putnam County competition and sectional opponents.
Stan was one of those small-town guys who never left home.
He was one of those small-town guys who could have made a name for himself anywhere.
Stan, thanks for staying home. Your mark on Pandora will last a long time.
