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By Robert Ross Stepping into deep snow, we enter the woods of Imerman Park, near Saginaw, Michigan. Above our heads tree branches bend under their burdens of snow. The silence is broken only by our breathing and the whispering of our boots. We hear a sound and look back. A man and woman have entered, jerked by two big dogs on leashes. They pause to unhook the leashes, and the animals come bounding toward us, kicking up little clouds of snow. We turn and continue walking until we reach the banks of the Tittabawassee River. Chunks of gray ice move past swiftly in the dark current. Bill Haithco stops, looks into the woods across the river for a moment, then smiles with pride. During the drive back to town, he fells how the son of a black chauffeur from Saginaw happened to acquire for his fellow citizens five parks and recreation areas covering 553 acres. After getting his B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Michigan in 1952, Mr. Haithco returned to his hometown and worked from 7 a.m. to noon at the county hospital and 2-10 p.m. at an independent pharmacy. Nine days off in l4 years When a highway project relocated the pharmacy he worked for, he struck off on his own and converted a barbershop in an old Polish neighborhood into a pharmacy. He remained in business for 14 years, until another highway project came through and this time took his land. "During all those years I had nine days of vacation," he says. He worked as a pharmacist at Saginaw General Hospital until his retirement 18 years later. Passing through a neighborhood of two-story wood frame houses, he points out an old drugstore, identical to the houses around it, where he helps out occasionally. "The owner's still using the same model of Olympia manual typewriter that I bought brand-new when I opened my own pharmacy in 1957." He shakes his head sadly. "When I got out of college, there were 52 independents in Saginaw. Now there are only three left." In the early days of his career Mr. Haithco joined the local Big Brothers chapter. "I knew a kid who needed it," he says. "He had a mother and father, but he wasn't getting enough attention." The same five people "When you get involved in one thing and you're on the board, others find out about you and ask you to join them. Next was Junior Achievement. Then the Breakfast Optimists Club asked me, and I became president of that. Then the Chamber of Commerce." He laughs. "You find the same five people on the boards of all these organizations." He pulls into the parking lot of the Saginaw Medical Credit Union, explaining that he needs to make a transaction. When he's finished, we tour the building, constructed during his 10 years as chairman of the board, and he waves to a few employees. Back behind the wheel, he warms to one of his favorite subjects. "People take volunteers for granted," he says with disapproval. "I couldn't do what I'm doing now without volunteers. Government often cannot-or will not-fund these services." "These services" are public recreation facilities, and they've been Mr. Haithco's unpaid career since 1968. That was when, as an appointee to Saginaw's federally funded Model City Corporation, he found out that funds were available for parks and golf courses in urban areas. He wanted a golf course The county didn't have a municipal golf course, and he knew of a city-owned airport that was a good size for one. "I was going to a University of Michigan football game with the Saginaw mayor," he says, "and I asked him if the city made any money on that airport. He said no." Right away he went to work and collected 932 signatures supporting his cause. He also formed the Saginaw County Parks and Recreation Commission and became its chairman, a post he still holds. Twenty-six years later, local golfers still lack a municipal golf course, but families have gained five parks offering swimming, fishing, canoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking, hiking, and picnicking. The most recent park, which includes a man-made lake, is named the William H. Haithco Recreation Area in his honor. In acquiring, developing, and raising money for public parks Mr. Haithco has put to use a prodigious memory and a talent for making friends and getting them involved. He's been a self-described "opportunist" in finding promising pockets of land and persuading their owners to sell, lease, or donate them to the county. An old pillar marked 'Ringwood' Of all the parks, the fourth, Ringwood Forest, was perhaps his sweetest acquisition. "When we learned a parcel of land in the county was owned by the University of Michigan, we visited the site and found an old pillar marked 'Ringwood,'" he says, like a sleuth recalling a favorite case. The 160-acre property, heavily wooded and hilly, with a majestic entry lined with Norway spruce, had been donated to the U-M in 1930 by lumber baron Clark Ring to be used for the promotion and study of forestry. "The University agreed to lease the land for $1 a year if we could find the donor's heirs and get them to change the use clause." He pauses. "I knew how to find them." "When I was a boy, we used to visit another black family that lived and worked as servants on the Ring estate. I remembered that when Mr. Ring died, they moved to Cleveland to work for his relatives there for a while, then returned to Saginaw. So I called on our friends, and they gave me the Cleveland address of James Ireland, a grandson of Mr. Ring." He smiles with satisfaction. "Only a black person could have done that." Connected to his community Waiting at a red light, he suddenly rolls his window down and waves at a Saginaw County Parks truck turning left in front of us. The driver glances back and yells out "Hey, Bill!" as he whizzes past. It doesn't take long to see how well connected Mr. Haithco is in his community. "When I opened my pharmacy I saw that getting involved was the way to gain respect and identity in the community. You're always drawing something from the community, but you have to put something back, too, or there'll be nothing left to draw out. It's like a bank account." Like a good savings account, his efforts have drawn interest-and appreciation. Last year, he received the U.S. Pharmacist/Searle Service to the Community Award, and he was named Outstanding Volunteer by the National Association of County Parks and Recreation Officials. So what drives Bill Haithco? Our tour completed, he turns off the ignition, reflects for a moment, then retrieves a favorite saying from his well-stocked memory: "What you do for yourself will die with you; what you do for others will live forever." This article first appeared in the Spring 1995 issue of INTERACTIONS, published by the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. |
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