Ellsworth Blosser would be 85 years young today. He grew up Mennonite on a farm in North Lima, Ohio, went to undergrad at Goshen College in Indiana, and attained graduate and post-graduate degrees at Ohio State. Worked as a chemist and metallurgist at Battelle Laboratory in Columbus and then in the same capacity at Worthington Industries. The man could grow one hell of a garden and could fix anything (and I do mean anything) with a motor or an engine. He also was mean with a stick welder in his hand. Sang a pretty good baritone/bass in the church choir at All Saints Lutheran in Worthington, Ohio, where he and Mom were founding members. Never missed a single baseball game of mine, from neighborhood games at age 9 to the American Legion World Series in Carson City, Nevada when I was 18. I haven't, and have vowed not to miss any game my son plays in - it's something Dad did that sticks in my memory. He doted on his only grandchild (my boy) for the 4 years that he knew him, and was married to my mother for 2 months shy of 46 years when death took him. Extremely frugal, he never earned what one would deem "a lot" of money, but when he died (and mom, less than 6 months later) he left 7+ figures to their church, their schools, and a couple of other charities. I buried him on my 40th birthday, nearly 7 years ago. I heard this song for the first time ever the day after he died, and I damn near rear-ended a semi on Rt. 3 in Westerville because I couldn't see. Happy Birthday Dad! Me and Jr. miss you a lot!
Sorry for being long-winded, and perhaps boring, but it's something I wanted to do.