Icon viewers:

Here are some recollections about the April 11, 1965, Palm Sunday tornado from Icon viewer and former Bluffton resident, Anne McGinnis Parker.

1965 PALM SUNDAY TORNADO

Bluffton area was declared a disaster area by the federal government. Unfortunately, the declaration was not accompanied by funds. Mutual Insurance companies were left bankrupt by the many claims. A small sum from the State of Ohio was far from enough to repair the wide-spread damage.

This is why American Jewish Society for Service, AJSS, chose this area to send one of their summer work groups. A sort of domestic Peace Corps, the Bluffton-Beaverdam project was their most successful up to then.

Brooklynite Jules Hirsh, who with his wife chaperoned the group, attributed the success to the careful planning by the local disaster committee who provided plenty of tools, materials and proper supervision.

Sixteen high school and college teenagers paid their own expense of living in Bluffton College dorms for the privilege of spending five weeks at hard labor. Helping people in need is one of the first teachings of Judaism. TZEDAKAH, charity, is translated as “righteousness.”

Five new barns and a house stand as living monument to the efforts of these young people to build a better world.

Besides the project’s material accomplishment, it was a new experience for both volunteers and those they helped. Although Bluffton has long been noted for the practice of inter-national, inter-racial, inter-faith principles, names like Rosenfeld, Hyman and Novikoff, are rare in this White Anglo-Saxon population.

Small town life was new to those from Jersey City, Long Beach, Flushing.

Visits to local church services created a desire to learn more about their own religion -- one young man got busy on learning Hebrew. Churches served weekly home-cooked dinners in their social rooms.

The Kiwanis Club sponsored trips to Cleveland Art Museum, Antioch College, Mammoth Cave and the Toledo Zoo. They swam Sundays in the Buckeye.

Bluffton Businessmen’s Association drafted retired builder/contractor Del McGinnis to supervise the work gang.

When 200 AJSS workers from projects met in November of 1965 in New York to celebrate the completion of the summer projects, they invited Del to join them. At age 77, Del had his first plane ride, arranged by Bluffton Businessmen’s Assoc.

Jules Hirsh greeted Mr. McGinnis at Kennedy Airport and took him on a whirlwind tour of the city on the way to Temple Emanuel, NYC’s largest synagogue. Del began to suspect he may be called upon to “say a few words.”

Easy. “All the facts were there, the terrible devastation of the tornado, the superb job done by AJSS Bluffton crew, the delightful experience of my first association with a group of Jewish people. I just told the facts.”

Some perks were listed in the group’s diary of the project. Driving a seven-penny nail straight, Kool-aid at work break, chicken barbecue at Del’s, a sturdy aluminum ladder, driving a $13,000.00 combine. Knowledge of 2 x 4’s, joists, chalk lines, plumb boards -- all new vocabulary.

Alice Katcher summed up her summer “vacation” this way: “No, the bargain we made with Bluffton was unfair -- far from being a 50-50 proposition, we took more from Bluffton than we left.”

Some Blufftonites might disagree.

More 
At the Temple, a lady came up behind Del and slipped her arm through his and welcomed "Uncle Del." It was my cousin New Yorker Esther Ahlm who had been alerted by my Aunt Ethel Fisher* that Del would be in NY. This was the same time of the BIG BLACKOUT and Del got on the plane back to Dayton just in time.

Anne McGinnis Parker
419-285-4891
[email protected]