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Sunday, May 26, 2024, would have marked Harry C. Hamm's 101st birthday. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that he -- my father -- has been away from this earth since 1991.
Over all these years without him, I and others in our family have often wondered what he would think of the current state of affairs of his beloved country, and more closely, his hometown. We have had lively, sometimes loud discussions, as to what his opinions may have been.
It was not unusual for my dad to have an office full of politicians and businessmen seeking sage advice from him over his storied newspaper career. My dad was not just a newspaper editor. He was someone who cared deeply about the future of his hometown, and in 1987, authored his WHEELING 2000 plan. It contained his thoughts on how Wheeling could look in the years to come, with special attention to waterfront development.
But let's go back even further. He held positions in various community organizations designed to work for the betterment of the community. In May of 1954, he was among a host of who's who in Wheeling who took part in "Today and Tomorrow in the Wheeling Area." That was the title of the Wheeling Area Conference on Community Development held in the city.
The conference had 12 separate committees, each tasked with a particular area of development. They included topics from arterial highways to housing and development; parking and traffic to schools and education, and many others.
Of course, there were only men serving these areas and you would know many of their names: Bloch, Jones, Paull, Laupp, Levenson, Stobbs, Dix, Hazlett, Dieckmann, Good, Flaccus, Fahey, Spillers, McCamic, O'Brien, Wood, Fair, Kirkpatrick, Schrader and so on. There are still buildings in Wheeling with their names attached to their histories.
During that 1954 conference, these community leaders touted some of their goals to include eliminating traffic bottlenecks, providing adequate downtown parking facilities, ridding unsightly eyesores, revising the city zoning and building codes, and completing a study of the public school system.
Now 70 years later, I wonder what those early community development pioneers would think of the city they envisioned for the future. Personally, I don't think they would be disappointed, especially with the recent announcement of a major hotel, retail, meeting and entertainment project planned for the heart of the downtown adjacent to the riverfront. Now that's looking forward in a good way.
And I think this project makes a perfect birthday present for Harry.
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.