Former employee for Standard Oil mechanically gifted

11/1/2000

Campsey A. Schoonover, a retired maintenance employee for the former Standard Oil of Ohio, died Monday of pneumonia at the Wapakoneta Manor Nursing Home, Wapakoneta. He was 103.

Mr. Schoonover, who lived on Colburn Street for many years, repaired gasoline pumps for Standard Ohio for more than 30 years at its service stations throughout northwest Ohio.

“He was a top-notch mechanic,'' Warren Schoonover, his son, said. “He was good at what he did. There were a lot of bad pumps in those days.''

In his early years, he serviced pumps in Bryan, Defiance, and other outlying communities. As he got older, he worked mainly in Toledo. He retired in 1962.

Born in Indiana, Mr. Schoonover moved with his parents to Lima, O., and while a teenager worked in nearby oil fields owned by his father.

In 1917, he married Evelyn Brandon. She died in 1971. He married Wava Lehman in 1974. She died in 1997.

In his spare time, Mr. Schoonover enjoyed tinkering in his garage.

“Dad was a man who had a hobby of making mechanical things,'' his son said. One of his projects for many years was trying to make a practical electric car powered by batteries, he said.

“He worked on that all the time...in the garage, adding on this and adding on that. He was out there about every night. His mechanical aptitude was terrific. He could do about anything.''

Surviving are his son, Warren; sister, Lilia Moore; stepdaughter, Maxine Barhorst; eight grandchildren; eight step-grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Church of St. Andrew United Methodist.There will be no visitation. Arrangements are by the Bennett-Emmert Funeral Home.