Plumber was Bedford Twp. inspector

7/10/2004

LAMBERTVILLE - Richard "Dick" Schoch, a former Bedford Township plumbing inspector who was the founder and past president of Schoch Plumbing and Heating Mechanical Contractors, died of an apparent stroke Monday in his home here. He was 79.

Mr. Schoch was a bus driver for the former Shortway Lines Inc. bus company for some years until the mid-1950s, when he founded the plumbing and heating company in Lambertville.

He was president of the firm until 1987, when he became the Bedford Township plumbing inspector, a job he held until about 1994 when he retired.

In the 1960s, Mr. Schoch was at different times the chairman of the Toledo Area Plumber Apprenticeship Committee and the president of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of Northwestern Ohio.

Mr. Schoch, a native of Lambertville, was attending Whitmer High School in his last year in 1943 when he lied about his age to enlist in the Navy at age 17. He served in the South Pacific until 1946 when he was honorably discharged with the rank of gunner's mate second class. He returned to Toledo and joined Shortway.

"He was very much a patriot, proud of his service," his daughter, Karen Schoch, said.

"He was one loving person, who loved his family and friends more than anything in the world, and loved to joke," the daughter said.

In his spare time, Mr. Schoch enjoyed playing golf and growing vegetables.

He was a member of Samaria Lodge, F&AM, where he was a 32nd degree Mason and a past master; the Zenobia Shrine, and St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Temperance.

Surviving are his wife of 52 years, Edna Schoch; daughters, Nancy Walles, Joyce Schoch, and Karen Schoch; sons, Richard Schoch and William Schoch; sister, Marcia Baltzell, and nine grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. today in the Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania.

The family suggests tributes to Visiting Nurse Hospice, St. Luke's Lutheran Church Memorial Fund, or the Zenobia Shrine.