John Franklin Baumgartner was born January 21, 1929 and died of natural causes on December 1, 2020, aged 91 years. He had been living on the family farm at Lauber Hill for over 30 years until 2018.
John was born in Wauseon’s Detwiller Hospital and was a lifelong resident of Fulton and Williams counties. He was born to parents Roland S. and Fern (Stump) Baumgartner, who passed away in 1979 and 1989 respectively. He married Annabelle Mae Todd in February 1953, who preceded him in death in 2016. His only sibling was his sister Merlin Jane Baumgartner who preceded John in death in 2008.
He is survived by his only child David, who together with wife Riham, live in Houston, Texas. John has two grandchildren who he loved dearly: Lana age 27 and Ryan age 25, currently living in Austin and Dallas respectively.
John was active in civic and community activities. While living in Fulton County, he was a 4-H Club leader and served on the Wauseon Community Chest Board of Directors. Additionally, he served as President of Bryan City Council and served seven years as a Bryan City Councilman.
An avid advocate of education, John served on the Fulton County Board of Education for many years and taught real estate classes at what is now Northwest State Community College. He attended Pettisville and Winameg elementary schools and graduated from Delta High School in 1947. He attended the Ohio State University in Columbus.
John was Founder of Baumgartner Financial Services in Bryan and served as its President for over 20 years until retirement. Prior to that he was named as manager of the new Archbold branch of The Home Saving & Loan Association in 1979. Earlier he was manager of the Production Credit Association office at Bryan for 13 years and Organization Director for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.
Always maintaining a great passion for agriculture (and famous for wearing his old office white dress shirts while farming), he was a livestock and grain farmer in the Archbold and Wauseon area in his spare time. He was also known as an early proponent of the environmentally friendly and now popular no-till farming method.
A lifelong Rotary supporter, John was a member of the Archbold, Bryan, and Stryker Clubs, and held the office of President in both the Archbold and Bryan Clubs. He was a member of the Archbold United Methodist Church.
His love of playing the trumpet was facilitated by leading his own “Glenn Miller” style band performing at Fulton County area dances and with the Ohio State Fair Band in the 1940s. Later, duets with his son on the piano became his musical highlight.
More than anything, as friends will testify, John loved people and loved stories of both local history and people’s lives.
A brief public (socially distant and responsible) gravesite ceremony, open to both family and friends, is planned for Saturday, December 12 at 4 pm at the Lauber Hill Church cemetery, located on County Road 21 at Highway 20A, Archbold. Short Funeral Home in Archbold has been entrusted with the arrangements.
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