It can be aptly said that a community is as good as its people. It can be argued that a community only grows in strength through wise and passionate leadership.
When this writer first plopped into our area over three decades ago, his first impressions were more disappointing than good. The people seemed glued in the tight fabric of their separate towns and schools of Clyde and Green Springs.
It certainly felt, to this ‘outsider’ that each community was too wrapped up in itself. Teaching at Green Springs School certainly gave me a rather skewed perception of the real situation. Maybe what I sensed was flawed, but this outsider thought Clyde and Green Springs were both good communities that seemed to ‘accept and tolerate’ each other.
Sometimes, we have to step out and look at things from the outside to see the real inside.
After transferring with the Green Springs’ seventh and eighth grade classes to Clyde Junior a High in 1986, I began to gain a more ‘balanced outlook’ for our two great communities. Like anywhere, there are good people who reflect positively the image outsiders might perceive upon making that area their home.
In this series, ‘Crown Jewels of Clyde-Green Springs’, we will examine those individuals who arguably have made a dramatic and lasting impact upon all of us — young and old. These folks once gone will live on forever through the many lives they have affected, the positive example they have set with the utmost humility and the growth they have led in shaping the wonderful community we live in today.
Nearly unanimously, when I have asked “who has made the greatest difference in the Clyde-Green Springs’ community?”, the answer nearly always is Joe and Sharon Wilson.
I first met Joe and Sharon in 1986-87. What struck this outsider perhaps the most was their warmth and positive attitudes.
Not knowing this struggling soul from Massillon, I found meeting them to be refreshingly ‘different’. I truly felt special in their presence thanks to their ability to make just about anyone feel ‘at home’ with them. Thirty years later, I find myself writing about these outstanding folks, ‘Crown Jewels’ for sure.
Joe and his bride have now been married for 45 years. They have successfully raised three children, Aaron (of Clyde), Tara (now in Montana) and Andrea (Portsmouth). They have five grandsons. Joe has been a lifelong resident of Clyde while Sharon grew up in Fremont until moving to Clyde in 1971.
It would be an understatement to say that Joe and Sharon have been dedicated to and involved in the state of our CGS community. Joe worked from the age of ten in his father’s store while Sharon early on learned her work ethic at her family’s Polyclean business in Fremont.
Upon graduating from Heidelberg, Joe became part owner of Wilson’s Clothing with his late brother, Bob. Later, Joe and Sharon served time as teachers in the local schools, while serving at the same time on various boards and committees.
After teaching times ended, they began greatly successful ventures with Joe teaching a state business programs at Terra State Community College, and Sharon building great customer rapport and business for 25 years at S&J Travel.
Joe became a leading force as a member of the CGS Board of Education, a post he held for 16 years.
Involvement comes second nature to these ‘Crown Jewels’ even after so-called retirement. Joe has been on the Bellevue Hospital Board of Trustees, the WSOS Revolving Loan Fund, Clyde Savings and First Financial Bank Board of Directors (30 years) and Kiwanis member for 30 years.
Sharon has been Director of the Sandusky County Park District for 16 years and a Trustee of the Sandusky County Community Fund Board for four years. Of course, in the past she has been equalling devoted to serving her community with various other board memberships.
It was a genuine honor to learn what these two highly motivated, caring, and successful people had to say regarding their success, their ideas, and their thoughts about our little world in which we Flier faithful live.
When asked about their proudest achievements, I found joy in Sharon saying, “Raising with Joe three children to be independent, honorable, and loving citizens certainly is my biggest accomplishment. We are so proud of Aaron, Tara, and Andrea. Our five grandsons are the light of our lives!”
Sharon also her pride in being an active servant on the Sandusky County Park District and her key role in the completion of the Wilson Nature Center. Joe added that his greatest achievement and a source of real pride in addition to his wife, kids, and grandsons was his work with the completion of the Clyde High School Auditorium. Of course, his pride extended to the completion of a state-of-the-art softball field, soccer field, tennis courts, and all-weather track.
One thing of many I have learned from Joe and Sharon is once either of them gets involved with a project’s creation, each is committed to the end to getting that enterprise done and completed as well as it possibly can be completed. Good advice for any of us, particularly our young attempting to know how to go about things.
Joe and Sharon exemplify the cream of the crop in term’s of quality citizens. In addition to the credits already shared, they have benefited enormously from their good fortune of traveling to most corners of the world.
It has given them not only a higher education but a valuable and balanced perspective on issues that affect many of us. It has humbled them to the point that they value life and all good people living within it, rich or poor, educated or not educated, the strong as well as the weak.
We fellow citizens can learn so much from their example on living the ‘right way’. They could live anywhere, but they remain in love with their home in Clyde.
“We love Clyde because we can freely go about,” Sharon said. “To our local coffee shop, stores, and cafes. We can see friends or strangers and learn from them. Or as ‘Cheers’ so aptly expressed, ‘where everybody knows your name….’”
