Walbridge ex-official took pride in thriftiness

5/14/2009

WALBRIDGE - Charles C. Adkins, a former village administrator who saved tax dollars by using his carpentry skills to remodel village offices, died Tuesday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township, after suffering a stroke May 6. He was 90.

He retired as administrator in early 1981 at age 62 but continued to work into his 70s as a manger of Hirzel Canning's retail store.

He was elected in November, 1981, to Village Council and was re-elected in November, 1985, but resigned Feb. 1, 1987.

He was a council member from 1960 to 1963, during which he helped negotiate a contract to provide residents with Toledo water. One of his last acts as administrator was to negotiate for water and sewer systems to switch from Toledo to Wood County service.

He was hired in 1963 to be street superintendent and was hired as village administrator in 1978.

He said his priority in all things was to save money.

"I always lived within my appropriations," he told The Blade in 1981. "There was only so much money to spend."

So when it came time to remodel council chambers and police offices, he did the work himself. Toledo Edison said it would charge $25,000 to put in lights at Loop Park. He did the work for $3,500.

"He had good leadership and got along good with the people," said his brother Cecil, a former Village Council member. "He was always there for them. He worked right along with the guys. He ran a backhoe, whatever it took to get the job done."

He formerly was a member of the Walbridge-Lake Fire Department.

He attended Walbridge School and was a World War II veteran of the Army, serving in the Pacific Theater.

He farmed for many years.

He was formerly married to the late Nell Adkins. He was formerly married to Marilyn Adkins, and for years after their divorce, they were companions, family members said.

Surviving are his daughters, Debbie Adkins, Deanna Adkins, Darlene Merritt, and Pam Howison; stepdaughters, Kay Ann Byington and Jeanne Mix; brothers, Cecil and Donald Adkins; sister, Dorothy Sebring; seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Eggleston Meinert Pavley Funeral Home, Millbury Chapel, where the body will be after 2 p.m. today.

The family suggests tributes to Hospice of Northwest Ohio or St. Mark Lutheran Church.