Repository, The (Canton, OH)

Estimated printed pages: 5

September 19, 2004
Section: Main Story
Gift comes with strings attached
TIM BOTOS
Repository staff writer
CANTON -- Oscar Geckler lived a farmers life. A plain man in basic
clothes in a simple house. A product of the Depression, his barn was
stuffed with broken-down equipment he saved, just in case.
But there was another side of Oscar Geckler.
The same man who raised sheep and pigs and milked cows also was a
financial whiz. Most every day he studied pages of the Wall Street Journal,
listened to stock reports on the radio and watched the Bloomberg report
on TV.
Aside from farming, he also owned a handful of rental houses. His
financial portfolio included shares of stock in everything from the Timken
Co. to Enron. When he died 17 years ago, Oscar was worth $2 million.
Even those closest to his family had no clue hed amassed such a fortune.
After his death, that pot of money helped support his family. One by one,
through the years, they died, too. All the Gecklers are gone, most of them
buried together in North Lawn Cemetery.
However, $900,000 of Oscars money, which never was spent, remains in
a bank. The bulk is to be donated to St. Luke Lutheran Home, the nursing
home where he died. But theres a catch. The donation wont occur until
2021, according to terms in Oscars will.
St. Lukes officials appreciate the gift.
Still, theyd prefer most of the money now, not later.
To get it, theyre going to court, asking a judge to tinker with directions

Oscar spelled out in his 27-page will. One question facing Stark County
Probate Judge Dixie Park, who will hear the case beginning this week: If
Oscar Geckler were alive today, would he want to speed up the donation
to St. Lukes?

Often dressed in overalls, or other farmer garb, and his hair combed back
over his balding head, Oscar resembled Holywood golden years character
actor Barry Fitzgerald or perhaps Mickey Rooney. The only time he dressed
up was for church and lunch on Sundays with his wife, Bernadine.
The couple had no children together, though he had two from a previous
marriage. As husband and wife, they worked their farm together on whats
now the northeast corner of Route 62 and Broadway Avenue NE in
Nimishillen Township. The house and barn stand today, though theyve
been remodeled.
Meticulous, neat and regimented, Oscar held onto old copies of the Wall
Street Journal, stacking them in his dining room. He insisted his wife
serve him mashed potatoes with supper every day.
Although they owned the rental homes and invested wisely, the Gecklers
never spent much money. Oscar expected and demanded a hard days
work on the farm, though he could outwork most anyone. He was thrifty
and careful with his money, said those who knew him. In fact, he could be
downright miserly.
Pretty close to being Mr. Scrooge, said John Neel, who lived across the
street from the Gecklers.
The broken-down tractors and unusable farm equipment that dotted the
property was by purpose, not chance. Neel said Oscar used the ploy to try
to keep his property taxes from increasing.
Although Oscar Geckler could be gruff, Bernadine Bernie Geckler was
more like Aunt Bee. Largerthan her husband, she had a heart to match.
The farm always was overrun with dogs shed taken in; she usually named
them Taffy. Shed also bring ailing young sheep into the home to nurse
them back to health her lamby-pies, she called them.

Devoutly religious, the couple attended Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in

Plain Township. The Gecklers donated money to the church over the
years, for church bells and to renovate a library. They didnt want glory.
They were quiet people; they didnt want a big deal, said the Rev. Donald
Safford, former church pastor.
In portions of his will, Oscar also remembered St. Luke Lutheran Home.
The generosity of the Gecklers is memorialized in a plaque purchased by
the St. Luke Foundation last year; the plaque hangs in a hallway inside the
Lutheran church. It honors Oscar, Bernie and their immediate family with
Psalm 23, also known as The Shepherds Psalm.
Bernie, whod worked as a bookkeeper and in a Canton bank, loved to
bake. Bread was her specialty, but elderberry pies werent far behind. The
thicker the pie, the better. When she moved into Canton Christian Home
after her husbands death in 1987, she continued baking in her apartment
kitchenette.
She wasnt a social butterfly, but developed a circle of friends who lived
near her apartment at the end of the hall on the fourth floor.
Almost until her death two years ago, it was Bernie who drove them to the
grocery store or doctors appointments. You couldnt miss Bernies car in
the parking lot of the nursing home; a large cream-colored 1981 Ford
LTD station wagon.
In her later years, Safford visited Bernie at Canton Christian Home. It was
common, he said, for her to hand him a check for the church.

Oscar always was concerned that Bernie be cared for, if he died first. That
was a good bet, since he was 17 years older. In 1982, an attorney drew up
Oscars will. He created four legal trusts to make sure Bernie and other
immediate family members would be financially secure when Oscar died.
Oscars directions were specific, right down to this provision: money in
one of the trusts is to care for the grave sites of Oscar, Bernie and seven

other family members, including placing flowers on their graves on

holidays. That maintenance is to continue for exactly 19 years and one
day after the death of the last Geckler. After that, any money left over is
to be donated to St. Lukes.
Bernies death in 2002 revealed the donation to St. Lukes in 2021,
because she was the last surviving Geckler.
The Rev. Luther Lautenschlager, executive director at St. Lukes, learned
of the pending $900,000 last year. His initial reaction was predictable.
I wanted to know if we could get our hands on it, he recalled.
Lautenschlager said the money can do plenty of good now. It will help pay
rent for residents who run out of money. He said St. Lukes provided
almost $1 million in charity care in the last three years. Besides, carrying
an asset like that on foundation books can help finance an expansion in
Massillon.
But several local attorneys said to forget about it. Whats done is done
and whats written is written. The will specified 19 years and one day;
there simply was no way to change that, they told Lautenschlager.
An attorney in Cleveland sees it different.
He says St. Lukes can get a big chunk of the money now, if it can prove
in court it isnt altering Oscars intentions. To do that, St. Lukes is
seeking only $750,000 of Gecklers money, not the entire amount. The
other $150,000 will be left behind to care for the graves likely more
than enough.
Whats more, St. Lukes plans to leave its money at Unizan Bank, the same
place its been since Oscars death. Unizan officials, who oversee the trust
on behalf of Oscar, are siding with St. Lukes, saying it makes good sense
to give the foundation most of the money now.
Unizan and St. Lukes officials say speeding up the donation fits Oscars
wishes. They say he likely expected some family members to live longer
than they did, which would have drained more money. They say he
probably didnt plan to have $900,000 in an account simply to care for

grave sites.
Would you like to see your money sit in a bank for 17 years? said St.
Lukes Cleveland attorney Harry Brown. I think he would applaud us ...
its a laudible goal. Frankly, Im proud of my part in this.
Park, who is to begin hearing the case in a pre-trial on Wednesday, said it
is legal to reform a trust such as Oscars, provided the beneficiary and
trustee can prove the intent of the donor isnt altered.
To do that, theyll have to put themselves in the mind and soul of a man
who died 17 years ago.
You can reach Repository writer Tim Botos at (330) 580-8333 or e-mail:
tim.botos@cantonrep.com

Copyright 2004, The Repository, All Rights Reserved.