Article published June 12, 2009
EARL F. 'BUD' OTT, 1925-2009
Official led schools through hard times
Earl F. "Bud" Ott, 83, who as superintendent of the Springfield Local Schools steered the district through energy shortages, inflation, and other hazards of the late 1970s, died of a heart aneurysm Tuesday in his Bowling Green home.
He retired in June, 1979, to control the beginnings of high blood pressure. Later, he had two heart valve replacements.
"He'd been going pretty strong," his daughter Barbara Peck said. He liked to say, "•'Oh, I'm a tiger,'•" she recalled.
Mr. Ott became Springfield superintendent Jan. 1, 1977.
He'd been with the district since 1959 and was assistant superintendent since 1971. Yet his first days as superintendent were like a "baptism of fire," he told The Blade after announcing his retirement.
A fuel shortage almost closed the district. A committee of staff members came up with a way to transport students from building to building and altered schedules. Schools stayed open."The whole thing is working together, and that's what this district is all about," Mr. Ott told The Blade.
Teachers were hard-pressed to find sufficient texts; custodians worked with inadequate supplies, he said then, "but everybody keeps plugging away and trying to do the job."
His successor, George Tombaugh, recalled, "Things were much, much tighter in those days.
"People forget about the high inflation and high interest rates," said Mr. Tombaugh, who was Springfield assistant superintendent from 1977-79, then superintendent from 1979-1999.
"The district was just beginning to emerge in its growth and was limited in its resources," said Mr. Tombaugh, also a former superintendent of the Westerville City Schools. "It was a struggle to get our head above water. He provided the leadership to move us forward.
"His heart was very much with the district," Mr. Tombaugh said. "He was well thought of by the staff and the community."
Mr. Ott, formerly of Holland, was hired by the school district as a high school industrial arts teacher. He became high school principal in 1965.
A 1943 graduate of Bellefontaine, Ohio, High School, Mr. Ott enlisted in the Marines soon after. His duty as a scout took him to Saipan, Okinawa, and Tinian, where he was blown out of a foxhole and hit by shrapnel when a tank blew up. He was in Nagasaki, Japan, with the U.S. occupation forces after the war.
He enrolled in Bowling Green State University with the aim of being an educator. A tiff with the university over course credit caused him to leave for several years, during which he and his wife owned Pioneer Automatic Laundry on South Main Street in Bowling Green. He returned and received bachelor's and master's degrees from BGSU.
He became an industrial arts teacher in 1957 at the former high school in Portage, Ohio.
Woodworking was his specialty, and he built bookcases and, for grandchildren, cradles. "That's how I learned my appreciation of woodworking," his daughter said. "I can build a deck, but I can't cook."
He and his wife spent winters since 1981 in Fort Myers, Fla. He was an associate member of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Bowling Green.
Surviving are his wife, Dolores "Dede" Ott, whom he married March 23, 1948; son, Bruce; daughters, Beverly Pepper and Barbara Peck; sister, Norma Horton; eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Deck-Hanneman Funeral Home and Crematory, Bowling Green, where the body will be after 4 p.m. today.
The family suggests tributes to the USO or a charity of the donor's choice.
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