English butler found better life as Akron rubber worker | Mark J. Price

If Jeffery Richards, 94, pays any homage to the imminent removal of B.F. Goodrich’s smokestacks from the Akron skyline, it will be for a man who worked beneath their shadow for 30 years.

His grandfather Charles Giles immigrated to this country in the early 1900s like many others from Cornwall, England. Seeking a better life, he came to Akron hoping for employment.

“In England, he had lived as a domestic servant and held the position of a butler at Powderham Castle in Devon,” recalled Richards, a retired Revere teacher and retired Episcopal priest. “It was a very refined life devoted to serving the privileged upper class.

“Life at the castle did not satisfy him. He wanted something better; he wanted to be his own person. And strangely enough, life as a rubber worker became his answer.”

Giles found a job in the Goodrich stockroom, and walked to the factory from his family’s rented home on Wildwood Avenue. Finally he could afford to buy an old-fashioned Chandler car, and eventually, he purchased a little bungalow on Yukon Avenue.

Before leaving for work in the morning in the 1930s, he would bring his grandson “a hot cup of sweet tea.” Richards could never forget such an act of love from the man who was like a second father to him.

He was a big man, a gentle man. Giles worked hard in a rough environment, but he never lost his sense of refinement, celebrating his 30th anniversary at Goodrich in February 1945.

He died Nov. 7, 1946, a week away from his 68th birthday. Survivors included his wife, Edith, daughter, Mona Richards, and grandson, Jeffery. He is buried at Rose Hill in Fairlawn about 3,580 miles from the land where he was born.

Richards mailed us a 1945 photo of Giles from The Circle, the Goodrich newspaper, with the hope that it might be tucked away in the Beacon Journal archives. And that’s where it will go.

“He was his own man as much as a poor man could be, and I loved him for it,” Richards noted. “So I pay homage to that lovely old man and those grimy, old smokestacks.”

How about a monument?

Copley reader C. David Post, 88, remembers seeing the smokestacks from his childhood home on Bellevue Avenue on West Hill.

As an adult, he landed a job at B.F. Goodrich, working for 23 years in industrial development and serving as manager of international and domestic staffing services for the chemical group.

Post is proposing a memorial to Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, the company and its twin smokestacks. He would like to see the city establish a mini park on the site where the smokestacks stood — connected to Main Street and the Towpath Trail by walkways.

He envisions a large granite monument with “scale duplications” of the historic stacks and inscriptions detailing the life of the company’s founder and Goodrich’s contributions to the rubber and plastics industry. Granite benches could be placed at both ends.

The city wants the public’s suggestions for how to best pay homage to the B.F. Goodrich smokestacks after their removal.

Ideas will be accepted through Aug. 15 at https://tinyurl.com/mryk9x2m

Post sketched out a drawing on a yellow pad to illustrate his concept. It’s important to remember the smokestacks as a symbol of Akron’s past.

“We will miss them,” he wrote.

On the other hand

Akron native Gary Miller, who now lives in Florida, remembers the stench when he was a kid. The city had yellow skies because of Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone, General Tire and other rubber companies.

When he moved away in 1974, Miller didn’t miss the pollution.

“The air smelled like sulfur,” he recalled.

Vintage photos: Remember Akron television? Memorable personalities from WAKR-TV, WAKC-TV

Rory Mellinger questioned why Akron would want to pay homage to a company that abandoned the city and its union workers, leaving Ohio to go pollute towns in the South.

I guess I'd rather think about the good days when B.F. Goodrich was the city's largest employer instead of dwelling on the way things ended.

“Yes, I understand,” Mellinger replied. “Joe DiMaggio likely did just that after he lost Marilyn.”

This and that

● Speaking of smoke, I had to chuckle when I heard that Live Nation canceled Robert Plant’s sold-out concert with Alison Krauss on June 28 at Blossom Music Center because of unhealthy air quality from the Canadian wildfires. I’m pretty sure the air was a lot smokier inside the Richfield Coliseum during those Led Zeppelin concerts of the 1970s.

● Would someone have time to replace the missing “R” on the sign outside the Recycle Energy System plant on Opportunity Parkway in Akron? It’s been AWOL for years. Electric bike enthusiasts might see “ecycle” and try to recharge.

● The other day, I saw two cyclists using the downtown bike lane that the city installed on South Main Street in 2017. That must be some kind of record.

Geauga Lake revisited: Vintage photos of lost amusement park

● You’ve got to be kidding me: Halloween candy displays began popping up in local grocery stores in mid-July. Three months early! If you chip a tooth this Halloween, the trick is on you.

● As you’ve probably heard, FirstEnergy’s name has been taken down from Cleveland Browns Stadium following a statewide bribery scandal. Maybe the naming rights should go to another company in need of a PR boost in Ohio. How does Norfolk Southern Stadium sound?

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: English butler found better life beneath B.F. Goodrich smokestacks