Thoburn Augustus Speicher, son of Alvin Theodore "Red" Speicher & his 1st wife Esther Etta Helm Speicher.
Married 1932 Evelyn Marie Fenner Speicher, daughter of William Lawrence Fenner & his wife Laura Lilla Studley Fenner
Son
William F Speicher (married 2x)
*********************
ANOTHER PASTOR AT BURT LEAVES
Burt - The Rev Thoburn Speicher, who has been pastor of the Burt Methodist church for three and one-half years, has accepted the pastorate of the Methodist church at Ayrshire, where the pastor has resigned to go into other work. Although Ayrshire is a smaller town than Burt, the church has a larger membership and the change will mean an increase in salary for Rev Speicher. The Rev J C Buthman met with the official board here last Friday evening to consider plans to fill the vacancy at Burt, but no definite nominations were made. The change will take place April 1. Rev Speicher is the second Burt pastor to make a change in the last few weeks, as Rev Doms, Presbyterian minister at Burt, recently accepted another charge.
Algona Upper Des Moines (IA)
20 February 1940
**********************
1940 Ayrshire, Silver Lake Twp, Palo Alto Co,IA - Speicher, Thoburn A 32 IN, wife Evelyn Marie 35 IL & son William F 5 IN
**********************
The Call Is Still Clear For Thoburn Speicher
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another in a continuing series of personality profiles on the men and women whose actions have shaped and are shaping the destiny of Long Beach.)
By Frank Anderson, Staff Writer
Things haven't been lively in North Manchester since Thoburn Speicher stowed his Manchester College sheepskin in his valise and rode the Monon railroad into Chicago to enroll at Garrett Seminary. The journey meant turning his back on the town library where he'd read "everything from Abe Martin's joke books to a history of the Mormon Church." And it meant severing lies with the shovel handle works, the paper mill and the canning factory where he had applied his talents to finance a college education. But he said his goodbyes and choo-chooed away -- down the tracks leading to Methodist pastorates in Whitewater and Marion, Ind, Burl and Early, Iowa, and a 20-year career as an Air Force chaplain.
When the journey ended in the summer of 1964, he was a retired lieutenant colonel living in Los Altos and holder of a brand new job as community relations director for Goodwill Industries, 800 W Pacific Coast Highway.
HE'S STILL at it -- writing the quarterly newspaper, composing pamphlets which tell the story of Goodwill, counseling handicapped workers iii the plant and even filling in as chaplain for services when the guest parson fails to show. Like his boss at Goodwill, executive secretary Walter Case, the 61-year-old Speicher "thinks people."
His interest in human beings and his compassion for their problems pays off in what he calls "satisfactions." "In this work you're not in it for money," he says modestly. Dean Martin probably tips bartenders more in a year than Thoburn Speicher makes in two. But Speicher doesn't lack for gold, even though it's of another coin. What's his payment? Perhaps the look of joy on the face of a mentally retarded young man when he masters a simple assembly operation at a work table -- or maybe it's the pride Speicher feels when an ex-convict finds a new life on the loading dock, or when a young Spanish-American father who can't walk stands tall on his merits as an electronics technician.
SPEICHER SHRUGS off his contributions to rehabilitation of the handicapped. But the people he helps don't. Each has gained something from the tall, white-thatched man with the twinkling eyes and the heart as busy as his typewriter. A word of advice and encouragement -- a smile -- a pat on the back -- an intercession in their behalf -- this they remember and file away in their Speicher book. The labors of love are reciprocal.
Speicher didn't set out to he a minister of God. All he wanted from college: was an education. He had a vague idea he'd like to be a scoutmaster, a Sunday school teacher, sociologist and writer. His father was a maintenance man, and had bounced around from job to job with no clear goal except to provide for his family of three daughters and one son. Speicher had a Penrod-like boyhood in North Manchester. The Eel River was handy for fishing, or he could saunter over to the town square and listen to the whittlers telling lies to each other. For real excitement there was Saturday night when the crowds gathered in front of the barber shop to watch haircuts.
OR HE COULD slip on his Sunday- go-to-meeting shoes and squeak into the library, maybe stopping off at the college to take in baseball practice or a rehearsal of the dramatic society. Once in college he played at football and other sports, worked on the college paper and hitchhiked around the county. The four years went by in a rush, arid he was graduated into the depression economy. He thumbed a ride to Akron to talk to personnel people at a rubber plant about their training program for college graduates.
On the way back he rested his thumb at a bridge and got the revelation which once knocked Saul of Taursus from his horse. "I'll be a minister," Speicher said to no one in particular except the scarecrow in a corn field. "What better way is there to combine scout mastering, sociology, Sunday school teaching and writing?" He took four quarters to get through the three-quarter course at Garrett Seminary, Evanston, Ill. "I flunked one course because I got too deeply involved in settlement house work at Newbury Center in Chicago."
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
12 May 1969
***************************************
BOOZE AND BOOZER
Incredible 'Gifts' Made to Goodwill
By MARY NEISWENDER
"WE USE EVERYTHING, says Thoburn Speicher, new community relations chief at Goodwill Industries. Speicher holds two of the donated items: one for the family that has everything--a musical toilet tissue holder--and the other, a doll (under photo)
"You'd never believe what we find in our collection boxes." says Thoburn Speicher, new Community Relations chief for Goodwill Industries. He was right. "But I can prove it," he says. And he did. The Goodwill collection boxes, Speicher said and ordinarily are filled with discarded items for use by needy individuals. But for the needy family "who has everything," someone discarded a musical toilet-tissue dispenser.
THEN THERE was the one who the Goodwill official believes to be a disgruntled wife who discarded half a fifth of bonded whisky. "The plant manager poured it down the drain before anyone could get hold of it," Speicher says. "Then there was the 7 foot fluoroscope plate someone put in one of the boxes. There's not much of a market for it--it's still in our 'sell as is' department."
Speicher, who retired last month after 20 years as an Air Force chaplain, says that almost everything donated is put to use. Wages for some 330 individuals and all the money came "from the items donated in the collection boxes. Everything from television sets to diamond rings has found its way into the boxes keeping repairmen busy. There are five men just repairing shoes, four are working over appliances, eight are repairing furniture and numerous others are pressing, mending, ironing, etc, the used clothing donated.
Speicher, who lives at 5426 Fairbrook Ave, says very few of the things donated go to the dump. "The cardboard boxes the items come in are taken to the dump, a few dishes, broken in transit, mismatched shoes--things like; that," he says. THE REST are repaired and sold. There are toys, furniture, records, magazines, books, and - n o w and then a drunk. The last one, says the onetime Chicago Settlement House worker, was found in the collection box near the main office. "He crawled in during the night, I guess," says Speicher.
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
29 August 1964
Married 1932 Evelyn Marie Fenner Speicher, daughter of William Lawrence Fenner & his wife Laura Lilla Studley Fenner
Son
William F Speicher (married 2x)
*********************
ANOTHER PASTOR AT BURT LEAVES
Burt - The Rev Thoburn Speicher, who has been pastor of the Burt Methodist church for three and one-half years, has accepted the pastorate of the Methodist church at Ayrshire, where the pastor has resigned to go into other work. Although Ayrshire is a smaller town than Burt, the church has a larger membership and the change will mean an increase in salary for Rev Speicher. The Rev J C Buthman met with the official board here last Friday evening to consider plans to fill the vacancy at Burt, but no definite nominations were made. The change will take place April 1. Rev Speicher is the second Burt pastor to make a change in the last few weeks, as Rev Doms, Presbyterian minister at Burt, recently accepted another charge.
Algona Upper Des Moines (IA)
20 February 1940
**********************
1940 Ayrshire, Silver Lake Twp, Palo Alto Co,IA - Speicher, Thoburn A 32 IN, wife Evelyn Marie 35 IL & son William F 5 IN
**********************
The Call Is Still Clear For Thoburn Speicher
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another in a continuing series of personality profiles on the men and women whose actions have shaped and are shaping the destiny of Long Beach.)
By Frank Anderson, Staff Writer
Things haven't been lively in North Manchester since Thoburn Speicher stowed his Manchester College sheepskin in his valise and rode the Monon railroad into Chicago to enroll at Garrett Seminary. The journey meant turning his back on the town library where he'd read "everything from Abe Martin's joke books to a history of the Mormon Church." And it meant severing lies with the shovel handle works, the paper mill and the canning factory where he had applied his talents to finance a college education. But he said his goodbyes and choo-chooed away -- down the tracks leading to Methodist pastorates in Whitewater and Marion, Ind, Burl and Early, Iowa, and a 20-year career as an Air Force chaplain.
When the journey ended in the summer of 1964, he was a retired lieutenant colonel living in Los Altos and holder of a brand new job as community relations director for Goodwill Industries, 800 W Pacific Coast Highway.
HE'S STILL at it -- writing the quarterly newspaper, composing pamphlets which tell the story of Goodwill, counseling handicapped workers iii the plant and even filling in as chaplain for services when the guest parson fails to show. Like his boss at Goodwill, executive secretary Walter Case, the 61-year-old Speicher "thinks people."
His interest in human beings and his compassion for their problems pays off in what he calls "satisfactions." "In this work you're not in it for money," he says modestly. Dean Martin probably tips bartenders more in a year than Thoburn Speicher makes in two. But Speicher doesn't lack for gold, even though it's of another coin. What's his payment? Perhaps the look of joy on the face of a mentally retarded young man when he masters a simple assembly operation at a work table -- or maybe it's the pride Speicher feels when an ex-convict finds a new life on the loading dock, or when a young Spanish-American father who can't walk stands tall on his merits as an electronics technician.
SPEICHER SHRUGS off his contributions to rehabilitation of the handicapped. But the people he helps don't. Each has gained something from the tall, white-thatched man with the twinkling eyes and the heart as busy as his typewriter. A word of advice and encouragement -- a smile -- a pat on the back -- an intercession in their behalf -- this they remember and file away in their Speicher book. The labors of love are reciprocal.
Speicher didn't set out to he a minister of God. All he wanted from college: was an education. He had a vague idea he'd like to be a scoutmaster, a Sunday school teacher, sociologist and writer. His father was a maintenance man, and had bounced around from job to job with no clear goal except to provide for his family of three daughters and one son. Speicher had a Penrod-like boyhood in North Manchester. The Eel River was handy for fishing, or he could saunter over to the town square and listen to the whittlers telling lies to each other. For real excitement there was Saturday night when the crowds gathered in front of the barber shop to watch haircuts.
OR HE COULD slip on his Sunday- go-to-meeting shoes and squeak into the library, maybe stopping off at the college to take in baseball practice or a rehearsal of the dramatic society. Once in college he played at football and other sports, worked on the college paper and hitchhiked around the county. The four years went by in a rush, arid he was graduated into the depression economy. He thumbed a ride to Akron to talk to personnel people at a rubber plant about their training program for college graduates.
On the way back he rested his thumb at a bridge and got the revelation which once knocked Saul of Taursus from his horse. "I'll be a minister," Speicher said to no one in particular except the scarecrow in a corn field. "What better way is there to combine scout mastering, sociology, Sunday school teaching and writing?" He took four quarters to get through the three-quarter course at Garrett Seminary, Evanston, Ill. "I flunked one course because I got too deeply involved in settlement house work at Newbury Center in Chicago."
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
12 May 1969
***************************************
BOOZE AND BOOZER
Incredible 'Gifts' Made to Goodwill
By MARY NEISWENDER
"WE USE EVERYTHING, says Thoburn Speicher, new community relations chief at Goodwill Industries. Speicher holds two of the donated items: one for the family that has everything--a musical toilet tissue holder--and the other, a doll (under photo)
"You'd never believe what we find in our collection boxes." says Thoburn Speicher, new Community Relations chief for Goodwill Industries. He was right. "But I can prove it," he says. And he did. The Goodwill collection boxes, Speicher said and ordinarily are filled with discarded items for use by needy individuals. But for the needy family "who has everything," someone discarded a musical toilet-tissue dispenser.
THEN THERE was the one who the Goodwill official believes to be a disgruntled wife who discarded half a fifth of bonded whisky. "The plant manager poured it down the drain before anyone could get hold of it," Speicher says. "Then there was the 7 foot fluoroscope plate someone put in one of the boxes. There's not much of a market for it--it's still in our 'sell as is' department."
Speicher, who retired last month after 20 years as an Air Force chaplain, says that almost everything donated is put to use. Wages for some 330 individuals and all the money came "from the items donated in the collection boxes. Everything from television sets to diamond rings has found its way into the boxes keeping repairmen busy. There are five men just repairing shoes, four are working over appliances, eight are repairing furniture and numerous others are pressing, mending, ironing, etc, the used clothing donated.
Speicher, who lives at 5426 Fairbrook Ave, says very few of the things donated go to the dump. "The cardboard boxes the items come in are taken to the dump, a few dishes, broken in transit, mismatched shoes--things like; that," he says. THE REST are repaired and sold. There are toys, furniture, records, magazines, books, and - n o w and then a drunk. The last one, says the onetime Chicago Settlement House worker, was found in the collection box near the main office. "He crawled in during the night, I guess," says Speicher.
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
29 August 1964
Thoburn Augustus Speicher, son of Alvin Theodore "Red" Speicher & his 1st wife Esther Etta Helm Speicher.
Married 1932 Evelyn Marie Fenner Speicher, daughter of William Lawrence Fenner & his wife Laura Lilla Studley Fenner
Son
William F Speicher (married 2x)
*********************
ANOTHER PASTOR AT BURT LEAVES
Burt - The Rev Thoburn Speicher, who has been pastor of the Burt Methodist church for three and one-half years, has accepted the pastorate of the Methodist church at Ayrshire, where the pastor has resigned to go into other work. Although Ayrshire is a smaller town than Burt, the church has a larger membership and the change will mean an increase in salary for Rev Speicher. The Rev J C Buthman met with the official board here last Friday evening to consider plans to fill the vacancy at Burt, but no definite nominations were made. The change will take place April 1. Rev Speicher is the second Burt pastor to make a change in the last few weeks, as Rev Doms, Presbyterian minister at Burt, recently accepted another charge.
Algona Upper Des Moines (IA)
20 February 1940
**********************
1940 Ayrshire, Silver Lake Twp, Palo Alto Co,IA - Speicher, Thoburn A 32 IN, wife Evelyn Marie 35 IL & son William F 5 IN
**********************
The Call Is Still Clear For Thoburn Speicher
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another in a continuing series of personality profiles on the men and women whose actions have shaped and are shaping the destiny of Long Beach.)
By Frank Anderson, Staff Writer
Things haven't been lively in North Manchester since Thoburn Speicher stowed his Manchester College sheepskin in his valise and rode the Monon railroad into Chicago to enroll at Garrett Seminary. The journey meant turning his back on the town library where he'd read "everything from Abe Martin's joke books to a history of the Mormon Church." And it meant severing lies with the shovel handle works, the paper mill and the canning factory where he had applied his talents to finance a college education. But he said his goodbyes and choo-chooed away -- down the tracks leading to Methodist pastorates in Whitewater and Marion, Ind, Burl and Early, Iowa, and a 20-year career as an Air Force chaplain.
When the journey ended in the summer of 1964, he was a retired lieutenant colonel living in Los Altos and holder of a brand new job as community relations director for Goodwill Industries, 800 W Pacific Coast Highway.
HE'S STILL at it -- writing the quarterly newspaper, composing pamphlets which tell the story of Goodwill, counseling handicapped workers iii the plant and even filling in as chaplain for services when the guest parson fails to show. Like his boss at Goodwill, executive secretary Walter Case, the 61-year-old Speicher "thinks people."
His interest in human beings and his compassion for their problems pays off in what he calls "satisfactions." "In this work you're not in it for money," he says modestly. Dean Martin probably tips bartenders more in a year than Thoburn Speicher makes in two. But Speicher doesn't lack for gold, even though it's of another coin. What's his payment? Perhaps the look of joy on the face of a mentally retarded young man when he masters a simple assembly operation at a work table -- or maybe it's the pride Speicher feels when an ex-convict finds a new life on the loading dock, or when a young Spanish-American father who can't walk stands tall on his merits as an electronics technician.
SPEICHER SHRUGS off his contributions to rehabilitation of the handicapped. But the people he helps don't. Each has gained something from the tall, white-thatched man with the twinkling eyes and the heart as busy as his typewriter. A word of advice and encouragement -- a smile -- a pat on the back -- an intercession in their behalf -- this they remember and file away in their Speicher book. The labors of love are reciprocal.
Speicher didn't set out to he a minister of God. All he wanted from college: was an education. He had a vague idea he'd like to be a scoutmaster, a Sunday school teacher, sociologist and writer. His father was a maintenance man, and had bounced around from job to job with no clear goal except to provide for his family of three daughters and one son. Speicher had a Penrod-like boyhood in North Manchester. The Eel River was handy for fishing, or he could saunter over to the town square and listen to the whittlers telling lies to each other. For real excitement there was Saturday night when the crowds gathered in front of the barber shop to watch haircuts.
OR HE COULD slip on his Sunday- go-to-meeting shoes and squeak into the library, maybe stopping off at the college to take in baseball practice or a rehearsal of the dramatic society. Once in college he played at football and other sports, worked on the college paper and hitchhiked around the county. The four years went by in a rush, arid he was graduated into the depression economy. He thumbed a ride to Akron to talk to personnel people at a rubber plant about their training program for college graduates.
On the way back he rested his thumb at a bridge and got the revelation which once knocked Saul of Taursus from his horse. "I'll be a minister," Speicher said to no one in particular except the scarecrow in a corn field. "What better way is there to combine scout mastering, sociology, Sunday school teaching and writing?" He took four quarters to get through the three-quarter course at Garrett Seminary, Evanston, Ill. "I flunked one course because I got too deeply involved in settlement house work at Newbury Center in Chicago."
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
12 May 1969
***************************************
BOOZE AND BOOZER
Incredible 'Gifts' Made to Goodwill
By MARY NEISWENDER
"WE USE EVERYTHING, says Thoburn Speicher, new community relations chief at Goodwill Industries. Speicher holds two of the donated items: one for the family that has everything--a musical toilet tissue holder--and the other, a doll (under photo)
"You'd never believe what we find in our collection boxes." says Thoburn Speicher, new Community Relations chief for Goodwill Industries. He was right. "But I can prove it," he says. And he did. The Goodwill collection boxes, Speicher said and ordinarily are filled with discarded items for use by needy individuals. But for the needy family "who has everything," someone discarded a musical toilet-tissue dispenser.
THEN THERE was the one who the Goodwill official believes to be a disgruntled wife who discarded half a fifth of bonded whisky. "The plant manager poured it down the drain before anyone could get hold of it," Speicher says. "Then there was the 7 foot fluoroscope plate someone put in one of the boxes. There's not much of a market for it--it's still in our 'sell as is' department."
Speicher, who retired last month after 20 years as an Air Force chaplain, says that almost everything donated is put to use. Wages for some 330 individuals and all the money came "from the items donated in the collection boxes. Everything from television sets to diamond rings has found its way into the boxes keeping repairmen busy. There are five men just repairing shoes, four are working over appliances, eight are repairing furniture and numerous others are pressing, mending, ironing, etc, the used clothing donated.
Speicher, who lives at 5426 Fairbrook Ave, says very few of the things donated go to the dump. "The cardboard boxes the items come in are taken to the dump, a few dishes, broken in transit, mismatched shoes--things like; that," he says. THE REST are repaired and sold. There are toys, furniture, records, magazines, books, and - n o w and then a drunk. The last one, says the onetime Chicago Settlement House worker, was found in the collection box near the main office. "He crawled in during the night, I guess," says Speicher.
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
29 August 1964
Married 1932 Evelyn Marie Fenner Speicher, daughter of William Lawrence Fenner & his wife Laura Lilla Studley Fenner
Son
William F Speicher (married 2x)
*********************
ANOTHER PASTOR AT BURT LEAVES
Burt - The Rev Thoburn Speicher, who has been pastor of the Burt Methodist church for three and one-half years, has accepted the pastorate of the Methodist church at Ayrshire, where the pastor has resigned to go into other work. Although Ayrshire is a smaller town than Burt, the church has a larger membership and the change will mean an increase in salary for Rev Speicher. The Rev J C Buthman met with the official board here last Friday evening to consider plans to fill the vacancy at Burt, but no definite nominations were made. The change will take place April 1. Rev Speicher is the second Burt pastor to make a change in the last few weeks, as Rev Doms, Presbyterian minister at Burt, recently accepted another charge.
Algona Upper Des Moines (IA)
20 February 1940
**********************
1940 Ayrshire, Silver Lake Twp, Palo Alto Co,IA - Speicher, Thoburn A 32 IN, wife Evelyn Marie 35 IL & son William F 5 IN
**********************
The Call Is Still Clear For Thoburn Speicher
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another in a continuing series of personality profiles on the men and women whose actions have shaped and are shaping the destiny of Long Beach.)
By Frank Anderson, Staff Writer
Things haven't been lively in North Manchester since Thoburn Speicher stowed his Manchester College sheepskin in his valise and rode the Monon railroad into Chicago to enroll at Garrett Seminary. The journey meant turning his back on the town library where he'd read "everything from Abe Martin's joke books to a history of the Mormon Church." And it meant severing lies with the shovel handle works, the paper mill and the canning factory where he had applied his talents to finance a college education. But he said his goodbyes and choo-chooed away -- down the tracks leading to Methodist pastorates in Whitewater and Marion, Ind, Burl and Early, Iowa, and a 20-year career as an Air Force chaplain.
When the journey ended in the summer of 1964, he was a retired lieutenant colonel living in Los Altos and holder of a brand new job as community relations director for Goodwill Industries, 800 W Pacific Coast Highway.
HE'S STILL at it -- writing the quarterly newspaper, composing pamphlets which tell the story of Goodwill, counseling handicapped workers iii the plant and even filling in as chaplain for services when the guest parson fails to show. Like his boss at Goodwill, executive secretary Walter Case, the 61-year-old Speicher "thinks people."
His interest in human beings and his compassion for their problems pays off in what he calls "satisfactions." "In this work you're not in it for money," he says modestly. Dean Martin probably tips bartenders more in a year than Thoburn Speicher makes in two. But Speicher doesn't lack for gold, even though it's of another coin. What's his payment? Perhaps the look of joy on the face of a mentally retarded young man when he masters a simple assembly operation at a work table -- or maybe it's the pride Speicher feels when an ex-convict finds a new life on the loading dock, or when a young Spanish-American father who can't walk stands tall on his merits as an electronics technician.
SPEICHER SHRUGS off his contributions to rehabilitation of the handicapped. But the people he helps don't. Each has gained something from the tall, white-thatched man with the twinkling eyes and the heart as busy as his typewriter. A word of advice and encouragement -- a smile -- a pat on the back -- an intercession in their behalf -- this they remember and file away in their Speicher book. The labors of love are reciprocal.
Speicher didn't set out to he a minister of God. All he wanted from college: was an education. He had a vague idea he'd like to be a scoutmaster, a Sunday school teacher, sociologist and writer. His father was a maintenance man, and had bounced around from job to job with no clear goal except to provide for his family of three daughters and one son. Speicher had a Penrod-like boyhood in North Manchester. The Eel River was handy for fishing, or he could saunter over to the town square and listen to the whittlers telling lies to each other. For real excitement there was Saturday night when the crowds gathered in front of the barber shop to watch haircuts.
OR HE COULD slip on his Sunday- go-to-meeting shoes and squeak into the library, maybe stopping off at the college to take in baseball practice or a rehearsal of the dramatic society. Once in college he played at football and other sports, worked on the college paper and hitchhiked around the county. The four years went by in a rush, arid he was graduated into the depression economy. He thumbed a ride to Akron to talk to personnel people at a rubber plant about their training program for college graduates.
On the way back he rested his thumb at a bridge and got the revelation which once knocked Saul of Taursus from his horse. "I'll be a minister," Speicher said to no one in particular except the scarecrow in a corn field. "What better way is there to combine scout mastering, sociology, Sunday school teaching and writing?" He took four quarters to get through the three-quarter course at Garrett Seminary, Evanston, Ill. "I flunked one course because I got too deeply involved in settlement house work at Newbury Center in Chicago."
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
12 May 1969
***************************************
BOOZE AND BOOZER
Incredible 'Gifts' Made to Goodwill
By MARY NEISWENDER
"WE USE EVERYTHING, says Thoburn Speicher, new community relations chief at Goodwill Industries. Speicher holds two of the donated items: one for the family that has everything--a musical toilet tissue holder--and the other, a doll (under photo)
"You'd never believe what we find in our collection boxes." says Thoburn Speicher, new Community Relations chief for Goodwill Industries. He was right. "But I can prove it," he says. And he did. The Goodwill collection boxes, Speicher said and ordinarily are filled with discarded items for use by needy individuals. But for the needy family "who has everything," someone discarded a musical toilet-tissue dispenser.
THEN THERE was the one who the Goodwill official believes to be a disgruntled wife who discarded half a fifth of bonded whisky. "The plant manager poured it down the drain before anyone could get hold of it," Speicher says. "Then there was the 7 foot fluoroscope plate someone put in one of the boxes. There's not much of a market for it--it's still in our 'sell as is' department."
Speicher, who retired last month after 20 years as an Air Force chaplain, says that almost everything donated is put to use. Wages for some 330 individuals and all the money came "from the items donated in the collection boxes. Everything from television sets to diamond rings has found its way into the boxes keeping repairmen busy. There are five men just repairing shoes, four are working over appliances, eight are repairing furniture and numerous others are pressing, mending, ironing, etc, the used clothing donated.
Speicher, who lives at 5426 Fairbrook Ave, says very few of the things donated go to the dump. "The cardboard boxes the items come in are taken to the dump, a few dishes, broken in transit, mismatched shoes--things like; that," he says. THE REST are repaired and sold. There are toys, furniture, records, magazines, books, and - n o w and then a drunk. The last one, says the onetime Chicago Settlement House worker, was found in the collection box near the main office. "He crawled in during the night, I guess," says Speicher.
Independent (Long Beach, CA)
29 August 1964
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