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Camp staff alumni reminisce as Manatoc reunion is organized
Published on Monday, Aug 25, 2008
''Manatoc is an enchanting place,'' said retired Stow pharmacist Houston Morgan, 80, assistant scoutmaster of Troop 1 in the Great Trail Council. ''The traditions that are there go far and wide.''
The 620-acre Manatoc reservation, which encompasses Camp Butler, is a wooded paradise in Peninsula and Boston Township. It has served Boy Scouts since 1923, when Akron industrialist H. Karl Butler donated his farm near state Route 303 to establish Manatoc.
Morgan first camped there in 1940, when he was 12 years old and belonged to Troop 153 in Silver Lake. His father, Herbert W. Morgan, a scoutmaster for Akron's Troop 23 nearly a century ago, guided two of the city's first three Eagle Scouts.
A former scoutmaster who spent 34 years with Troop 177, Houston Morgan has supervised more than 100 Eagle Scouts since 1960. For each one, he has carved an Indian neckerchief slide — just like the ornament he made when he was an Eagle Scout.
''I've always said there are three things important in my life: my family, my profession and scouting,'' he said.
Some of Morgan's fondest memories of Manatoc began in 1943, when he joined the camp staff. He dug ditches, repaired roads, replaced culverts, cleaned buildings, pitched tents. Who could imagine that hard work would generate such nostalgia?
''I was on the Manatoc maintenance crew,'' Morgan recalled. ''That was a delight. It really was. . . . We were all over the camp doing maintenance work, repairing this and fixing that. Whatever needed to be done. We were busy from dawn till dusk, yet we had a lot of fun doing it.''
A dozen boys occupied a wooden cabin — roughly 12 feet by 12 feet — that was furnished with double-decker bunks and not much else.
''There was room for a table in the center, and there was a couple of closets that everybody had a niche in,'' Morgan said. ''They kept it pretty simple.''
Three times a day, hungry boys stampeded over to Manatoc's 425-seat dining hall to enjoy hearty meals and regale one another with camp songs.
''Boy, we ate good. You had a hot breakfast, a hot lunch and a hot supper — and all you wanted,'' Morgan said. ''Seconds was the rule.''
The hall staff filled porcelain pitchers with fresh milk and poured as much as the Scouts could gulp. ''There wasn't any limit, and that was three times a day,'' Morgan said.
Among the unforgettable memories, he will always associate the dining hall with the world events of June 6, 1944.
''I was washing pots and pans when I learned of the D-Day invasion,'' he said.
David Weyrick, 52, pastor of Stow Presbyterian Church and author of To These Things You Must Return, a five-volume history of Manatoc, started camping there in 1968, when he belonged to Troop 318 in the Ellet area of Akron.
''It's crazy to think that a place can mean so much, but it does,'' Weyrick said.
Weyrick joined the camp staff in 1971, when he was 15 years old. His first assignment was to work in the dish room.
''You washed all of the dishes and silverware after each meal,'' he said.
He was supposed to spend only a day on the job, but he must have been really good. He washed dishes for two weeks before being moved to Butler.
Butler, which opened in 1962, didn't have a dining hall: Its troops cooked meals at campsites. Patrols of eight boys prepared meals and dined together.
''It really taught the kids about responsibility,'' he said. ''They had their assignments each meal. This guy had to get the fire going, this guy had to cook, this guy had to clean up.''
Fortunately, the boys didn't have to forage for food. In essence, that was Weyrick's job. He worked in the commissary.
''We would provide the food for them to cook at Butler,'' he said. ''We had these big coolers and freezers, but all the food had to be packaged for each patrol. Then they would come three times a day to pick up their food.''
Once again, Weyrick did his job too well. He stayed in the commissary all summer.
The next year, 1972, he worked on Butler's maintenance staff. In 1973, Weyrick switched to Manatoc's maintenance staff and then returned to Butler in 1974. He spent 14 years on staff, working his way up to program director and camp director.
''When you work on a camp staff, even if it's for one summer, there's a certain camaraderie, there are friendships that are built,'' Weyrick said. ''There are guys I worked with years and years ago that I'm still close to.''
Some staff alumni have lost touch with old friends. They finally have an opportunity to reconnect.
The Great Trail Council is organizing the first Camp Staff Reunion for former summer staff members of Camp Manatoc, Camp Butler and Camp Ritchie (a camp the council operated from the 1960s to 1980s near Freeport). The gathering Nov. 14-15 in Richfield is open to staff alumni and their families.
''We just thought it would be really neat,'' said Manatoc camp ranger Chris Bergdorf, 48, of Boston Township. ''We don't know why no one ever thought of it before. The staffs never really got together.''
Bergdorf, the full-time ranger for 23 years, has been on the staff since he was 15 years old. He started out in maintenance emptying garbage cans, and later spent 11 years as assistant ranger.
Lately, he's been trying to figure out how many staff members worked at the camps.
''We think there could be 3,500 or so. Maybe 4,500,'' he said. ''It's hard to say because some did repeat in years. If you take an average staff of 60 people, some of those guys might have done five or six years in a row.''
Ground is being broken this week on an addition to Manatoc's historic dining hall. That is why the first reunion is based at the Quality Inn in Richfield instead of the camp.
''We didn't want one more year to go by,'' Bergdorf said. ''We wanted to get it started somehow.''
Alumni will tour Manatoc, attend programs, share memories, see skits, look at old photos, join a retreat and take a group photo.
''I'm hoping to get 100 staff members and then maybe 200 acquaintances, family, kids to come, too,'' he said. ''So 300 total is what we're hoping for the first year.''
Morgan said the reunion is a good idea. This summer, he was contacted by a Florida man, Don Durell, who worked at Manatoc in 1944. The two hadn't seen each other in nearly 65 years.
''We spent an afternoon out there at Manatoc,'' Morgan said. ''We walked around and reminisced about the old things.''
The reunion will be just like that, but on a larger scale.
''It would just be neat to see everyone back,'' Bergdorf said.
''Manatoc is kind of the glue that holds everything together,'' Morgan said.
''When you get to be my age, you look back upon those as the greatest summers of your life,'' Weyrick said.
MANATOC STAFF REUNION
The Great Trail Council of Boy Scouts of America is planning the first Camp Staff Reunion for the Manatoc reservation. The event is open to former summer staff members from camps Manatoc, Butler and Ritchie, and their families.
The event will be Nov. 14-15 at the Quality Inn at Richfield. There will be fellowship, programs, old photos, skits, an ice cream social, a tour of Manatoc and lunch in the dining hall.
Cost is $50 for all events or $30 for camp only. Send money to Camp Staff Reunion, P.O. Box 68, Akron, OH 44309. Reservations are due Oct. 1.
For information, contact Jim Shimko at 330-773-0415 or jshimko@bsamail.ort, or Chris Berglorf at 330-657-2418 or manatocbutler@alltel.net.
A registration form is available at www.gtcbsa.org
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
''Manatoc is an enchanting place,'' said retired Stow pharmacist Houston Morgan, 80, assistant scoutmaster of Troop 1 in the Great Trail Council. ''The traditions that are there go far and wide.''
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