Lakewood Lore

For more than 70 years, Bob Hitz has seen it all

Lakewoodite Bob Hitz remembers when "The Waffle Man" hawked his ambrosial wares on the streets of Lakewood and when Coulter's Drug Store at Detroit and Sloane avenues was the busiest place in town.

"People flocked to Coulter's from everywhere," recalled Hitz, who worked in the store as a teenage soda jerk in the 1930's. It was the end of the streetcar line and a last-stop place before crossing the bridge into Rocky River.

"It was a headquarters for many things, too. We dispensed Greyhound Bus and Lake Shore Electric Interurban tickets, as well as fishing, hunting and dog licenses. We sold candy and Baker's ice cream when cones were five cents, and there was a restaurant in the store where one could buy a good meal for 35 cents.

"Founder Walter D. Coulter, who opened the business in 1906, died at age 48 in 1936 after a short illness resulting from appendicitis. The store was sold by the family in the early 1960s and was closed several years later. Finally the building was demolished in 1966 to make way for a widening of Sloane Avenue.

Proprietor Coulter had lived on Edanola Avenue in Lakewood. His obituary said he would always be remembered for his kindness to those seeking aid and information at the outskirts of the city.

Predating Hitz's work experience is another fond memory -- that of the waffle man, who visited our city's neighborhoods on warm summer afternoons while mothers rocked in wood-slatted porch swings and children played tag and hopscotch.

This vendor, who proclaimed his imminence by striking a high pitched bell, drove an ancient truck with a cook stove in the back and a serving counter from whence he dispensed his offerings.

"Oh, but they were no ordinary waffles of the kind our mothers made between the halves of electric waffle irons," Hitz pointed out. "They were crisp, mouth watering, powder-sugared rosettes made by dipping a hot iron into batter. They were a grand treat we kids never forgot.

Hitz, now 72, always has been a keen observer of Lakewood past, but mostly from a vantage point different from ours.

For more than half century he has been house bound in the home his parents moved to on Warren Road in 1919 when he was two years old.

In 1935 Hitz was graduated from Lakewood High School where he played clarinet in the band. In the fall of that year he entered Case School of Applied Science to study engineering.

In the summer of '38, while in his junior year, he was diagnosed as having a severe form of arthritis. He finished college on crutches, and since then his adult life has been a chronicle of courage.

Bob's affliction left him with a fused hip and back, making it impossible for him to sit down. He decided to concentrate on that which he was capable of doing, and tried to dismiss from his mind those things which he was unable to do.

Unable to pursue a career in his chosen career of engineering, he became an insurance agent, taught clarinet and saxophone, and repaired reed instruments, all in his home.

When Bob's parents died in the 1970's, leaving him alone, the doctors said he would have to go a nursing center. But, blessed with grit, ingenuity and unshaken faith in God, he resolved to remain and continue to work from his home.

With medical attention, the help of friends and a business assistant -- now Sharon Bukszar, who is also a licensed underwriter -- Bob has been able to run a very successful insurance agency.

But even more rewarding than success in business has been the sweet victory in his prolonged private battle for independence.

This article appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post August 31, 1989. Reprinted with permission.

[Note: Mr. Hitz passed away in 1994. An obituary appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer February 10, 1994. The following obituary written by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post February 10, 1994. Reprinted with permission.]

Valiant is the adjective that best described Robert E. (Bob) Hitz, 76, who died in his sleep Saturday at Lakewood Hospital.

House-bound for 37 years and bed-ridden for the past six, he led a life that was a chronicle of courage.

Mr. Hitz suffered from a particularly virulent form of arthritis, which he contracted in 1938 while in his junior year at Case School of Applied Science. It struck his spine and hips, causing them to become rigid.

He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1939 on crutches. Ever after, because of his increasing loss of mobility, he was unable to pursue his chosen profession.

Instead, Mr. Hitz remained in his parents' Warren Road home, teaching and repairing reed instruments with skills that stemmed from the days he played clarinet in the Lakewood High School Band.

In 1946, he added another means of livelihood. He formed his own general insurance agency. Though confined to his home and having to handle all of his business solely by telephone, he carved out a successful career as an independent underwriter.

When his mother died in 1977, and his dad two years later, doctors said he would have to go to a nursing home. Mr. Hitz decided differently. With grit and an unshaken faith in God, he resolved to go it alone in the family home where he had lived since 1919.

"I decided to concentrate on my abilities and dismiss the disabilities," is the way he put it.

Mr. Hitz was born on Colgate Avenue in Cleveland, the only child of Edward N. and Alice M. Hitz. His father, a skilled baker, managed "The Epicurean," a former quality bake shop on Detroit Avenue at West 65th Street.

The family moved to Lakewood when Mr. Hitz was 2. He attended Lincoln Elementary School and Horace Mann Junior High. He was graduated from Lakewood High in 1936, and last year was named to the school's Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.

Also, he was the recipient of a commendation from the Ohio Senate for his courage, tenacity and ingenuity in achieving success despite his severe crippling affliction.

Mr. Hitz's inventiveness made him a role model for others.

He designed an end table beside his bed with shelves that could be raised and lowered automatically for easy access to business files. He helped devise a way that his computer could be suspended over his bed so that he could operate it while he was lying on his back.

From this position -- even during his final days when he could move only his arms and hands -- he continued to write inspirational pieces for publications circulated among the handicapped.

Mr. Hitz is survived by three cousins -- Richard, Ralph and Carolyn Zaun -- all of Cleveland. Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in Lakewood Presbyterian Church, Detroit at Marlowe, where he had been a member for 65 years.

Although unable to attend his church during his many years of illness, he kept abreast of its activities and once spearheaded a program to obtain special seating there for the handicapped.

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