Doug Oplinger’s amazing father passes away at age of 91
Jim Oplinger, father of former BJ managing editor Doug Oplinger,
passed away Friday, November 5 in Columbus.
Doug’s sister is Cindy, who lives in Worthington. A brother,
Rodney, died in infancy.
Their mother is Dolores “Honey” Stump Oplinger.
Jim’s obituary:
Jim Oplinger, 91,
retired building manager at the Goodyear Technical Center in Akron and longtime
Springfield Township resident, died Friday, November 5, 2021, in suburban
Columbus where he had lived since 2013.
The thrill of his
life was Dolores "Honey" Stump, his sweetheart from the Springfield
High School class of 1948. They married in May 1950 and enjoyed more than 71
years together.
Jim and Dolores
raised two children, Doug, of Green, and Cindy, in Worthington. A third child,
Rodney, died in infancy.
At Springfield High,
he was president of his junior class, football team wide receiver, and often
was at the center of fun and shenanigans which would continue through life. His
high school yearbook called him Mr. Blood and Guts. He joined the U.S. Army
right after high school, served briefly with the occupying forces in
Heidelberg, Germany, then returned home due to a hardship at the family
business.
His parents, Lee and
Ella Oplinger, operated a service station, food take-out and World War II-era
gathering place at Logtown on East Waterloo Road. He was an entrepreneur and
tinkerer, launching a 1950s - era television repair business while attending
electrical engineering classes.
Meanwhile, he and
Dolores purchased and added onto a tiny Springfield Township home with no
indoor plumbing, digging and building and pouring a concrete basement
themselves. For 40 years, their homes offered a kitchen-window view of the
Goodyear Airdock's rotating beacon. Jim joined Goodyear Aircraft as an
engineer, serving many years at the Wingfoot Lake Test Operations, where he and
others worked in remote locations transmitting and receiving experimental radio
and radar signals. The long hours in the cold, waiting for tests to run, were
filled with shooting arrows from towers and an occasional unexplained explosion
in Wingfoot Lake. He finished his 35 years at Goodyear as building manager of
the company's celebrated Technical Center. He won some of the company's highest
honors, including a Zero Defects Award for precise radar measurements and the
Spirit Award in 1978 as a technical engineer in corporate engineering, where he
was cited for his willingness to take on any task and his care for fellow
employees.
At his retirement
party, attended by the company president, he cart-wheeled onto the stage. (At a
grandson's wedding on the beach, he cartwheeled in the sand in his mid-80s.) A
Boy Scout in his youth, he rejoined Scouting In the 1960s as an assistant scoutmaster
in Troop 304, at their church, Clearview United Methodist. Jim was active with
the troop for nearly 50 years.
In the 1970s, he ran
for Springfield school board by walking the sidelines at football games with a
gigantic light-up sign strapped to his back, touching wires together to
illuminate "Vote," "Oplinger," "School board." He
won. Twice. And served as board president.
He chaperoned
marching band events and served as a Band Boosters officer. Most recently a
member of Purple Door United Methodist Church in Grove City, he has been an
active Methodist for most of his life, serving as a lay leader and on
leadership committees at Clearview and participating in service projects at
Lakemore churches.
They were avid
campers, enjoying weekend trips to Mohican State Park and floating down the
river on a raft crafted from foam radar insulation that Jim salvaged from the
discard pile at work. After the children were grown, they couldn't wait to take
grandchildren camping or cross the country multiple times in an RV, or cruise
the Caribbean and Alaskan coast.
Forever a fan of
football, he spent almost every fall Saturday watching his favorite Ohio State
Buckeyes, cheering Hopalong Cassady, Archie Griffin and more at the stadium and
from the couch. He was thrilled to have a daughter and five grandchildren
attend OSU.
Preceding him in
death was a sister, Wanda Hlas, and son-in-law, Tom McCandlish. Surviving are
his wife, Honey; son, Doug (Diane) in Akron; daughter, Cindy McCandlish (Tom)
in Worthington; granddaughters, Danielle Lorenz in Cincinnati, Emma Lindholm in
Worthington, Jaclyn Oplinger in Jacksonville, N.C.; grandsons, Justin Oplinger
in Hilliard and Michael McCandlish in Worthington; and five great
grandchildren.
Services will be 11
a.m. Tuesday, November 16, at the Eckard Baldwin Funeral Home, 760 E Market
St., Akron. Calling hours will be an hour before the service. Burial will be at
Hillside Cemetery in Springfield Township. Memorials may be sent to Grove City
Purple Door United Methodist Church, where a memorial service will be held
later.
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