Truck driver owned Weston bowling alley

BOWLING GREEN - Robert Theodore Clapp of Bowling Green, a truck driver who owned a bowling alley in Weston for several years, died Friday in Wood County Hospital of congestive heart failure. He was 86.

Mr. Clapp, who began working as a truck driver after World War II at the former Rossford Ordnance Depot, later owned and operated the Ten Pin Bowling Alley from 1960 to 1965.

"We ran the bowling alley as a family operation," said his daughter, Darla Wulff. Mr. Clapp's wife, Marion, worked at the bowling alley as did other members of the family, Mrs. Wulff said.

Area residents would come to the bowling alley to knock down pins and to enjoy the food served at the family-run business. "It was also like a small restaurant," she said. The Clapps served sandwiches, including hamburgers; soft drinks, and other items.

The Ten Pin alley was a manual operation, too, she recalled. "We had boys in the backs of the lanes to set up the pins, and they would send the balls back to the front," she said. The business had two lanes.

Mr. Clapp, who lived in Weston most of his life, also was a truck driver for several firms, and he worked in a factory for awhile before he bought the bowling alley, his daughter said. He was born on Nov. 8, 1919, in Custar, Ohio.

An Army veteran, Mr. Clapp was a member of Hope Lutheran Church in Bowling Green. He and his wife resided in New Mexico after he retired, but he returned to Wood County to live after his wife died in 1995.

Surviving are his son, Robert; daughter, Darla Wulff; seven grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. today in the Wright Funeral Home in Grand Rapids, Ohio, where services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

The family suggests tributes to the church or a charity of the donor's choice.