CATCHING UP WITH BOB COTTRILL

 

Bob Cottrill on right with Duane Harbert & Arlene Marteney Edgell 

Phone chat with Bob Cottrill February 22 in 2021

 

Bob Cottrill, Class of 1951, got his first Moderna CODVID vaccine and will get his 2^nd shot March 15.

 

Bob worked with his father in the coal mines while attending Monongah High School.

 

And he was the toughest player on the Lions’ football team, knocking out more than one tackler who tried to stop him.

 

Bob also drove a Marion County school bus to help pay for his Fairmont State education. He remembers taking the Monongah High band to the Buckwheat Festival in Buchannon. He helped Bucky Satterfield, part of the faceitiously named Gang That Terorized Marion County that I ran around with as a teenager, get a job as a Marion County school bus driver, too. Bob attended college on the GI Bill after he left the Navy in 1956.

 

Bob’s eyesight isn’t what it used to be so he lets his second wife, Thelma do the driving when they go somewhere.

 

He’s recovering from the thigh he broke after a fall while dancing the jitterbug! He tried to slide, but his shoes didn’t slide with him. He has a metal strip and screws to hold the contraption in his body.

Being the tough guy that he’s always been, Bob walks a half-mile daily to help his recovery. Not bad for a guy who will be 90 on April 3.

 

Just to be sure, he keeps a cane in hand and uses a walker around the house.

 

Otherwise, Bob said, he’s “feeling well.”

 

The thigh problem ended his golfing days, though.

 

Bob still communicates by phone with Arlene Marteney Edgell, Class of 1951, who is married to Okey Edgell, Class of 1944, and with Duane Harbert, also Class of 1951.

 

Duane lives in Marlinton, New Jersey. Duane’s mother, Goldie, taught at Worthington Grade School. Duane’s father, Frank Harbert, was principal of Thoburn Elementary in Monongah. Duane’s brother, John Harbert, Class of 1955, and his wife, Karen Colvin Harbert, also class of 1955, are deceased.

 

Bob graduated from Fairmont State in three years, began a teaching career in biology and general science and coaching at Ohio's Wapakoneta High School – astronaut Neil Armstrong’s hometown.

 

Bob also talked about chauffeuring Clyde Wells to Moorefield for some fishing and moonshine.

 

Bob credits Kathleen Snoderly, a social studies teacher at Monongah High, for instilling in him the importance of discipline if you want to be a good teacher. Bob wound up being an educator administrator in Northfield School District in Summit County, Ohio, about 15 miles from where I live in Tallmadge. He became an expert on school financing and integration.

 

It was one of the most enjoyable 54 minutes of my life talking to Bob, who lives in Florida.  I love talking to other Lions. It makes my heart roar with joy!