How can a guy from a place called Zelienople have so many friends in a place called Bluffton?
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Column about Don Schweingruber – How can a guy from a place called Zelienople have so many friends in a place called Bluffton?
That guy, let’s call him “The Donald” – he would have thought it funny – showed up here about the time Nixon was in the White House.
He never left. Imagine – he was hired to serve as the disciplinarian to rowdy Bluffton College students. A thankless job. But somebody had to do it.
Enrollment exploded once the institution implemented his many plans. And the Schweingruber era exceeded the tenure of maybe four Bluffton College/University presidents and even more Bluffton school superintendents, police chiefs and mayors.
In between handling student bad guys (and girls), he taught a Sunday school class in the English Lutheran Church to folks his parents’ age. He also parented three of the wildest kids ever to graduate from Bluffton High School.
Point in fact: One spray-painted a cutout image of a runner on the southwest corner of the Jackson-College intersection.
This is a sample of the content of "Bluffton Anthology - A creek runs through it." Copies are now available for $24.95 plus tax in Bluffton at:
• Roots by Strattons
• The Food Store
• The Black Lab
• Bluffton Senior Citizens Center
• The Dough Hook
• Polished
Stories Posted This Week
Thursday, October 15, 2026
- DeWine announces $200M Rural Health Transformation program award
- Herb program with Marge Lafollette, Oct. 15
- Prairie seeding activity at Bluffton University, October 24
- Food for thought: Choline for the brain
- Results for 5K on October 2, Bluffton University Homecoming event
- 15 minutes with Sherry Miller, senior center activities coordinator
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
- Ada Icon headlines, October 14
- CANCELLED Main St. closure on October 15
- Frederick Clyde Warren founded True-2-Form Plastics
- October 15 Bluffton Schools athletics lineup, streaming
- Pirate boys soccer beats Wapak in regular season finale
- Pirate girls soccer defeats Liberty Center
- Mennonite pastor to explore ‘good news’ in creation
- Bluffton University earns recognition in U.S. News & World Report rankings
- Obituary for Deborah "Debbie" Welch, 74
- Spirits and exorcism presentation during University Spiritual Life Week Forum
- Dodging bullets: Bluffton oral history 90+ years after Dillinger robbery
- Nora Matthews named BHS Student of the Month for September 2026
- ICAPP analysis on charter status and local autonomy
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
- Ada Icon headlines, October 13
- Bluffton area Women in Business meeting October 15
- Leo club glasses collection
- Night at the (Swiss Historical) Museum, October 24
- Woodcarving ornament workshop at Swiss Heritage Center
- Barefoot nature walks at the Nature Preserve
- Pirate volleyball seeded 4th
- Beavers sports roundup, October 6-11
- Bluffton leaf pickup scheduled for last week of October
- Pirate boys soccer shuts out Bellefontaine
- Watch an after school movie at the Bluffton Public Library
- Dunlap awarded OSBA humanitarian award