Ted Wilson, A Life of Service to Others - Part 2
“I was very fortunate”, Ted Wilson said, “that my husband recognized my need to continue my work.” Ira Wilson was a widower with two school age children, Robert and Gertrude, when they married in 1932. In 1933 she worked for the Juvenile Court. She was the only social worker in Seneca County.
Their daughter Carolyn was born in 1935. In 1946 Tiffin State Hospital had just opened and in 1947 she organized their social service department. She worked there until the legal retirement age for state workers forced her to retire at 75. Then, she said, “ I just kept going out there and giving my time. Finally they decided to pay me out of a special fund.”
In the thirties Ted Wilson organized the predecessor to the Community Council, which became inactive during the war years. She was a charter member of the Tiffin Chapter of The American Association of University Women in 1938..
Still feeling the need for people who were serving the needs of the poor in Tiffin to get together, she founded the Seneca County Community Council in 1947. She brought together ministers, social workers and others to meet once a month with a brown bag lunch to discuss the problems that the community faced. Ted thought that caring people in the community should know what each group was doing. The purpose of the Council was to develop friendship among people involved in social service.
One of the first needs that the Community Council addressed under Ted's leadership was the need for playgrounds and a swimming pool. A subcommittee of the Community Council wrote resolutions and presented them to City Council. They attended meetings of city council committees. Over the years a consensus developed to build the pool at Hedges Boyer Park and upgrade the parks.
Another area of concern was the lack of counseling services which could perhaps prevent mental problems from reaching the state that the clients had to be hospitalized. Ted worked through the Community Council to establish
outpatient mental health services. In 1952 after much study and persuasion, the Seneca County Mental Health Association was formed. In 1953 it founded the Sandusky Valley Guidance Center. Those services are now provided by Firelands Counseling and Recovery Services.
Very early the Community Council felt the need for a central place where people could call to find help with their problems. In 1978 through an initial grant from the Meshech Frost Foundation, the Info Center was established with Joan Groce taking the calls. This is now First Call for Help, funded by the United Way.
A subcommittee of the Community Council worked for funding for a new sewage disposal plant. In 1951 another subcommittee studied the jail which was built in l877 and advocated that a new one be built. Advocacy continued by the Community Council and other groups like the League of Women Voters. The new jail was completed in 1993.
The Community Council sponsored a round table for the clergy to find ways to help people with martial problems. Out of this grew the Family Counseling Service, founded in 1967. Ted Wilson coordinated this service out of her home for several years. It continues today. Local clergy and students under supervision from teachers in Heidelberg’s Master’s Degree in Counseling fill requests which are coordinated by Shirley Smith.
In the eighties when the local economy was in a downturn, commodities like cheese and butter were available from the Department of Agriculture. The Community Council under the leadership of Marilyn Brucksch supervised the distribution of these commodities at 24 locations with the help of 83 volunteers.
In 1989 the Community Council studied emergency heating and assistance was obtained from the Federal Government’s Home Energy Assistance Program which also used local donations. That year 63 families were served..
Ted was very concerned about the needs of the elderly. From a Community Council study, there developed Friendly Visitors, a County Home Auxiliary and the Senior Citizen’s Center on Market Street. Gladys and Phillip Millspaugh helped establish this first center.
Ted Wilson was quoted in 1984, “ It has taken 20 years before one could see the fruition of certain projects, but it was time well spent” She has been described as a very soft spoken woman with a great deal of persistence.
When she was 80 years old in 1974, eighty people came to pay tribute and a letter was read from the Governor. The party was arranged by Mrs. Max Berezin and Mary Grillot. Helen Blood, the librarian, accepted a sizable gift from the group for books for the library. At this surprise event, Ted said that she was reminded of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn sneaking into church and hearing all the nice things said about them by people who thought they had perished.
At ninety two she was chosen the Tiffin Lion’s Club Rose Day Queen in a contest which was open to women 60 years or older. This was held in connection with the Lion’s annual rose sale fund raiser. At that time she still enjoyed daily walks and going out with friends and neighbors for coffee, or lunch.
She died July 20th in 1995 at the age of one hundred and one at Fairhaven Retirement and Health Care Home where she had resided for five years.
The impact of her life continues to be felt in Tiffin through the continuation of services which she started in mental health, family counseling, and services for the elderly. May we each be as fortunate as Ted Wilson in finding work we love and enjoyment in life into our old age.
– Mary