Attica-Williamsport Rotary Club        Contact Us        Home

 

Below are two articles about Bob Quirk.  
One by Kevin Cullen from the Journal and Courier and one by Doug Hunt from Wabash College

____________________________________________________________________


 PUBLISHED: 01-08-06 5:00 AM EST


(By Kevin Cullen/Journal and Courier)
Bob and Jeannine Quirk with an old sea chest owned
by Bob's father, Captain Griff Quirk.

For your copy
Real American Stories, by Bob Quirk, is available at
Von's Book Shop, 315 W. State St., West Lafayette,
by calling Quirk at (765) 295-2604, or online
at www.authorhouse.com. Signed copies will be
available for $14 at a book signing from 5 to 7 p.m.
Thursday at the Attica Public Library.

Historian collects his tales

January 8, 2006

NEWTOWN -- In one sense, Bob Quirk, 78, is the quintessential Hoosier. He lives in the farm house where he was born and reared, the one that his grandparents built in 1891.

He went to school in Newtown, and graduated from nearby Wabash College. After Army service, Quirk farmed, then worked as a teacher and school administrator within a few miles of here. He is the Fountain County historian.

His new book, Real American Stories, reflects his deep knowledge of his little corner of the world, but it has a broader appeal, too. Some of the 43 stories speak of his globe-trotting parents; others recall an era of front porches, threshing rings, wash day, windmills, party lines, radio shows and early-day TV.

Quirk always has enjoyed telling stories, so a few years ago his wife, Jeannine, encouraged him to start writing them down.

"Not many people could do it," she says. "It's so unique to live in the world and have all the information that he has."

A friend, Greg Flint, suggested the book, and helped him with it. It includes columns that Quirk has written for the Fountain County Neighbor over the past three years.

"Bob's columns are always popular with our readers," says the newspaper's general manager, Clayton Doty. "People come in, constantly talking about his columns."

"At first, I thought I could write five, six, or seven stories," Quirk says. "I keep thinking I'll run out of ideas, but I don't. I'll think of something while I'm mowing the yard, then sit down and write."

The tales of his family are fascinating. His father, Capt. Griff Quirk, was Irish and served in the British Merchant Marine for 14 years aboard steamers and sailing ships. He often sailed from England to Australia; other trips took him from Ireland to Peru, around Cape Horn, and to the South Pacific, China, Pakistan and Mesopotamia.

Quirk's mother, Grace McKinney, grew up on the family farm. In an age when most girls didn't finish high school, she graduated from Northwestern University and taught music in China from 1919 to 1923.

She and Capt. Quirk fell in love during a six-week passage from Shanghai to London. They married and settled here.

Quirk says that as a kid, he assumed that every family received letters from relatives in India, England, Ireland, South Africa and Canada.

Quirk's columns about farming before World War II speak of raking hay, feeding horses, hauling water jugs to the threshers, milking cows ... and squirting a little to the cats.

Quirk takes his readers to school in the 1930s. Step by step, room by room, a mental picture forms. You can almost smell wet mittens drying atop the radiators, and see the kids playing "Fox and Geese."

Several stories revolve around Civil War diary entries of Capt. Will McKinney, the brother of Quirk's grandfather. He survived the Battle of Shiloh but died shortly after being discharged in 1864.

Quirk, the historian, writes about the "Council Grove Minute Men," the first horse thief detective association in the United States; Wingate's state championship basketball teams of 1913 and 1914; the national cornhusking championship that brought 125,000 people to little Newtown in 1935; and local heroes -- including Dave Sanders, murdered in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings after saving the lives of many of his students.

Home life is fondly recalled: ice-cream freezers, darned socks, wood-burning ranges, farm dinners, hard work and simple joys ... such as watching cloud formations and talking about what they resembled.

Quirk enjoyed compiling the book, and he hopes others enjoy reading it. His columns continue for the Neighbor.

"It always makes you feel good," he says, "when somebody comes up and says, 'I enjoyed what you wrote.'"

Each week, reporter Kevin Cullen visits interesting people, places and things outside Greater Lafayette. To share a story idea, call him at (765) 420-5202 or (800) 407-5813 or write him c/o Journal and Courier, 217 N. Sixth St., Lafayette, IN. 47901. His e-mail address is
kcullen@journalandcourier.com

 

Bob Quirk '50 Publishes Book About His Life Stories

by Doug Hunt

January 25, 2006

 

NEWTOWN — A retired Pleasant Hill Elementary School fifth-grade teacher and Wabash College graduate had heard stories all his life about the escapades of family members and other local residents.

Like most young kids Bob Quirk, 78, never thought too much about the stories until later years. The Fountain County historian recently formatted several tales into a new book.

"Real American Stories" was published in December 2005 by AuthorHouse, based at Bloomington, Ind. The book sells for $14 and can be obtained by phoning Quirk at 765-295-2604 or going to the AuthorHouse Web site at www.authorhouse.com.

A book signing is scheduled from 3-6 p.m. Jan. 31 at La Rose on Main Antique Mall, 124 W. Main St., Crawfordsville. Cost of the book is $14.

The book includes, among 43 stories, a diary of a Civil War soldier, a 15-year-old Irish boy who joined the British Merchant Marines and meets his future wife on board 14 years later on a voyage from Shanghai to London, a young woman who sailed to China in 1920 to teach school, outhouses, small town high school team that won a national high school tournament and a small town boy who became a hero at Colombine.

Quirk graduated in 1945 from Richland Township High School at Newtown. Went to Wabash College and put his college education on hold to serve in the Army for one and one-half years. He graduated with a history major in 1950 from Wabash. In the same year, he married Jeannine Peterson, Attica, on Aug. 20.

Griff Quirk, Bob’s father, was born in 1895 in Ireland and served 14 years in the British Merchant Marines. His mother, Grace McKinney, was born in 1891 in the house her mother and father built near Newtown.

"I didn’t think about the stories when I grew up, it was just mom and dad talking," Quirk said.

Quirk’s father came to Fountain County to farm after leaving the British Merchant Marines.

"Dad didn’t know much about farming but I learned more about England and Ireland from him," Quirk said.

One of the most precious archives Quirk discovered was a box of letters written by his mother when Grace went to Kuling, China, in 1919 to teacher music to British and American children.

A friend’s daughter had purchased the house Quirk’s mother lived in and told him a box of letters written by Grace to her mother were found in the home.

"We thought we had everything cleared out," Bob Quirk said.

The letters provided an insight, through Grace’s eyes, of life in China during the early part of the 1900s.

Other stories include the Wingate state championship basketball teams, travels of his father, farming, the time 125,000 people came to Newtown for the national cornhusking championship in 1935 and a special memory of Dave Sanders, the Fountain Central graduate who saved many students from harm, but was killed during the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.

"We used to haul Dave Sanders to ball games," Quirk said.

Quirk’s wife was probably the biggest influence to get her husband to write down his memories. Good friend Greg Flint suggested the book and helped organize it. Children Jeff, Jerry and Jill also had a hand with the book.

In addition to farming, Quirk added education to his career choices. He began teaching at the former Coal Creek Central High School and had been principals at Mount Zion, East Union and Waynetown schools before ending his education career at Pleasant Hill as a fifth-grade teacher.

Quirk hopes to be an example to show people the importance of writing down their memories from the stories they hear from family and friends.

"They may not think about it now but these stories will mean something to them later in life," Quirk said.
Wabash College • P.O. Box 352 • Crawfordsville, IN 47933 • 765.361.6100