History of Post 6768 (By Ron Seidel)
In 1946, after World War II. Fred Miralia, a a world war Veteran who was gassed during World War I and was a member of the Bedford VFW Post, worked on getting a charter for a post to be started in Northfield. 39 World War II and (1) World War I veteran signed up and became charter members on April 28th 1946. It is only fitting that we remember the names of these origanal charter members as follows.
Dennis H. Richardson
Edward J. Riley
Walter E. Scott
Howard A. Walsh
Stanley G. Dranek
Lewyn H. Green
Peter P. Lucas Jr.
Lawrence D. Meddles
Wesley W. Fisher
Joseph L. Tiger
Robert J. Krueger
Fred C. Morrell
Glenn E. Griffith
Samuel H. Horsfall
George H. Mellaliew
George W. Balogh
James R. Mathews
Richard L. Bonath
Floyd V. McRichie (WW I)
John E. Collins
Theodore J. Balint
Ebbert R. Boley
Robert E. Boley
Donald P. Burns
John Buss
Steve F. Cigan
Harold V. Cropper
Francis J. Grady
John J. Grady
Benjamin W.Green
Albert R. Griffith
Joseph F. Horsfall
Maurice E. Horsfall
William H. Horsfall
Joseph T. Karasek
Roy E. King
Melvin Klein
George J. Miklos
Narciso A. Milani
Richard S. Proe
We later added a considerable amount of WWI and WWII vterans in the early 50s, we added Korean War Veterans and then later Vietnam Veterans as well as some Persian War Veterans. Women Veterans were added to the VFW membership rules in later years. Howard Walsh was the first WW II Commander 1946-1947. Harvey King was the first Korean War Commander 1962-1963. Victor Zagosrski was the first Vietnam War Commander 1972-1973. Bill Rivers,Harvey King,Bert Westenfelder and now John Lawson all became summit County Council Commanders.
The Ladies Auxiliary was Chartered on January 7th 1947.
Lucille Grady was the first Auxiliary President 1947-1948. Irene Seidel was the first War Bride President 1955-1956. Chief Master Sergeant Eleanor B. Seidel U.S. Air Force Ret. was the first woman to join as a regular VFW member and Life Member. The Ladies Auxiliary have always been a main support of The VFW Post 6768. They held Fish Frys as far back as i can remember. The VFW Post met on the first and third Mondays of the month in The Northfield Center Town Hall. To raise money they held clambakes at Sopa's Farm on Twinsburg Rd. Later they held New Years Eve dances near The Mosonic Hall on Shepard Rd.
Each year the Northfield Center Fire Department held a carnival in the park. The VFW members always had a booth there, in one instance,because Ron Seidel lived in the Halfway House next to the park, he was elected to take the money home for safe keeping at night. At least $300 in one night, needless to say he didn't sleep well that night with that huge sum of money in his possession.
During the first year of the post in 1946, the world war I veteran's ranks in the Richie-Brinker American Legion Post was getting thinner and we participated in their parade and Memorial Day Services. This went on for a couple more years and Post 6768 took it over. Before that until after World War I the local Northfield School Bands, such as they were back then, participated in these events, along with The American Legion. And since 1946 the Northfield, Northfield-Macedonia and Nordonia School bands have always observed Memorial Day along with us. Since then we have continued to hold Memorial Day services and Parades. The American Legion once again joined (this past year 2003) the VFW in observing our Honored Dead.
During the early years of the post, numerous military funerals were held and guards were posted in the funeral home at all the wakes. We had exellent rifle squads back then as we constanly practiced. We marched around Northfield Center, stopping at local "watering Holes" for refreshments. We also participated in VOD programs with the local schools.
During that course in time, we always passed out food baskets to the needy at Christmas and sometimes Thanksgiving.
Part two: Post Home
About 5 years later in 1954 under the Commandership of Glenn Beers, we purchased the property where the post is located today. I'll never forget that day, Al Bennett, the local real estate man, stood on the north property line and with his fat belly sticking out pointed from that spot to the north and stated "this is your property". Well all set to work clearing the trees in the rear of the property for at least 3 weekends and one day Bill Waite came screaming, "what are you doing to my property". You guessed it, our property was to the south of where the rel estate man told us it was. So for the rest of that summer we cleaned out our own property. Ron Seidel immediately started to draw plans based on Harry Beagan's Taverne in Northfield. In the spring of '55 we started to carry blocks back through the mud and started building. We continued the rest of the year under Chris Nielsen's commandership and my supervision. We installed a pot belly stove on the north end of our building.
We held our first meeting in the winter after traipsing through the mud. After the meeting we were all standing around the stove and I had my suit on as I felt something hot, as I moved away,the back of my pants fell off as they got burn't from the heat.
We obtained an old bar from someplace in Cleveland and went into an "Honor System" of purchasing beer. In 1957 I believe that was the year Bert Westenfelder heard they were going to tear down a hanger at Sky Haven Airport. Bert and a couple others volunteered to dismantle it piece by piece. Then under Bert's direction took it back to the picnic area and constructed our first pavillion. Then again, I believe that was the year the post borrowed money from The Northfield Bank and Bert and other members including myself set about building our present meeting hall. Sometime after that, we did some brickwork on the building. Around 1969-70 a new serving bar was built and I set out about putting in a new ceiling,lights and heating ducts with a roof top unit. I paneled the perimeter of the bar and we re-built the toilets in there first faze.
I forgot when after that the new toilets and a basement area was added. Over the years and through the efforts of many commanders and post members, considerable work was done on the post home,parking lot and the pavillion area including water to the site and decent restroom facilities.
Post Commanders
46- H. Walsh
47- J. Grady
48- T. Balint
49- D. Glosh
50- G. Mellaliew
51- F. Grady
52- A.W. Rivers Jr.
53- H. Rivers
54- G. Beers
55- Chris Nielson
56- Ron Seidel
57- H. Rivers
58- Chris Nielsen
59- G. Beers
60- B. Westenfelder
61- B. Westenfelder
62- H. King
63- V. Griffith
64- A. Mueller
65- R. Grimm
66- P. Wytsell
67- J. Votush
68- W. Lauver
69- K. McIntosh
70- R. Grimm
71- Wm. Lauver
72- V. Zagorski
73- Burt Pollock
74- Frank Perko Jr.
75- G. Mathies
76- R. Carroll
77- Wm. Parker
78- Wm. Taylor
79- D. Marchetti
80- V. Zagorski
81- H. King
82- Wm. Taylor
83- Wm. Taylor
84- Elmer Leeper
85- Elmer Leeper
86- Elmer Leeper
87- Elmer Leeper
88- Jim Roule
89- Jim Roule
90- Jim Roule
91- Jim Roule
92- Jerry O'Conner
93- Wills,Konegni,Riley
94- Randy Riley,Fred Busko
95- Fred. Busko,Casey Nowakowski, Lennie Noack Jr.
96- Lennie Noack Jr.
97- Lennie Noack Jr.
98- Lennie Noack Jr.
99- Lennie Noack Jr.
00- Nick Skory
01- John Lawson
02- John Lawson
03- Lennie Noack Jr.
04- Lennie NoackJr.
05- Rick Milligan
06- Rick Milligan
07- Rick Milligan
08- Rick Milligan
09- Ted Nestor
10- Rick Milligan
Auxiliary Presidents
47- L. Grady
48- G. Johnson
49- R. Grady
50- V. Burns
51- D. Grady
52- L. Rivers
53- G. Hubbard
54- I. Hubbard
55- I. Seidel
56- W. Green
57- W. Green
58- Fran Doolan
59- Fran Doolan
60- E. Westenfelder
61- E. Westenfelder
62- Fran Doolan
63- V. Nielson
64- T. Persing
65- T. Persing
66- A. Persing
67- A. Persing
68- R. McIntosh
69- R. McIntosh
70- S. Grimm
71- B. Cabala
72- P. Horner
73- Jean Pollock
74- B. Perko
75- P. Posey
76- Connie Carroll 77- M. Darling
78- P. Horner
79- M. Darling
80- M. Darling
81- E. Mull
82- V. Clark
83- Fran Foster
84- V. Clark
85- Fran Foster
86- Carol Ferko
87- Carol Ferko
88- V. Ontako
89- D. Johnston
90- Rosemary Kasper
91- Rosemary Kasper
92- Elenor Hrezik
93- Rosemary Kasper
94- Rosemary Kasper
95- Jan Pollock
96- Rose Collins
97- Renell Noack
98- Renell Noack
99- Connie Carroll
00- Rosemary Kasper
01- Jan Puleo
02- Zelma Watson
03- Zelma Watson
04- Renell Noack
05- Renell Noack
06- Renell Noack
08- PattyTrentanelli
09- Renell Noack
10- Renell Noack
Part Four MEMBERSHIP
The post started with 40 members and rapidly grew after it's inception with returning WW II Veterans. This was augmented by at least 7 or 8 WW I Veterans. I can't remember all their names, but some were: A.W.Rivers Sr.,Harry Grimm Sr.,Rueben Mathews, Walter McCray, Leroy Johnson (WW I & WW II), Floyd V. McRitchie. (Charter member). After 1950 we were honored to have many Korean War Veterans join our post with Vietnam Veterans from 60's-70's. Persian Gulf Veterans followed in the 90's including one female Captain (G. Mathies) from the Army Medical Corps. Then as mentioned before, Eleanore B. Seidel who served during WW II, Korea and Vietnam joined our post. In 1988 we had 125 Life members. In 2003 we have 71 annual dues paying members along with 153 Life members.
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We old folks sorely need someone(s) to take our place and keep the VFW rolling!!
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