Grateful Stone throwing out Farm Division’s first pitch

• In 1938, a Shriner sponsored Stone for hospital admission in Philadelphia.
• Stone worked 37 years for State Farm in Newark as insurance claims superintendent.

NEWARK – At 88, George Stone still walks with a limp but is reluctant to use the Irish shillelagh walking stick his daughter got him for Father’s Day.

“I just need it on softer ground. Concrete or asphalt, I’m fine on,” said Stone, who still lives on the 7 acres in Madison Township that he shared with his late wife of 60 years, Ruby.

Back in 1938, when he was only 11, the thought of walking normally was hardly in the picture. However, thanks to the Shrine Club, Stone received immediate treatment for his polio in Philadelphia, leading to a long and happy life with Ruby and their four children in Licking County after they moved here in 1960 from West Virginia.

“I have never forgotten what they did for me. They’re just a remarkable organization,” Stone said. “Since they treated me, they have done even greater things, gotten larger and better. I contribute liberally to the Licking County Shrine Tournament fund, but I can never repay them for what they did for me. It was a life-changing experience.”

At 8 p.m. Tuesday, Stone will throw out the first pitch for the Licking County Shrine Farm Division finals at Mound City between Edward Jones and Pappy’s Grill.

“When all of us participate to drive these funds for the tournament, it gives joy to the kids who play in it and those who need it for our services, like George did,” Shrine tournament chairman Terry Hill said. “We touch lives, not only through baseball but for those who have burns or disabilities.

“After expenses, every penny we raise goes to the three closest (Shrine) hospitals we support, in Cincinnati, Lexington, Kentucky, and Erie, Pennsylvania. This is the biggest fundraiser we do for Aladdin Temple.”

Hill and Stone were in Bible study together at Newark First United Methodist Church, when Stone noticed Hill’s license plate: “Proud To Be A Shriner.” Hill asked him to throw out the first pitch, and he immediately accepted.

“Terry said, ‘We’ll get you close.’ I told him, ‘That won’t be needed. I can make that pitch,’ ” Stone said. “I haven’t been to a Shrine game for a long time, but I still have a lot of interest in it. I’m not a Shriner, which is one of my regrets. I just didn’t take the time, but I had a wife and four children at home.”

Stone’s parents knew early on that he was sick, wearing out new shoes on their side because his left ankle was skewed. But in 1938, a Shriner sponsored him for hospital admission in Philadelphia. He traveled by train from West Virginia with a Shrine chaperone, knowing he would not see his parents for more than three months.

“Polio was running rampant,” Stone said. “It left some kids with two bad legs, one bad leg, bad arms. It took good orthopedic surgeons to correct those deformities.”

At the hospital, he had to remain in isolation for two weeks. Eventually, after three surgeries on his ankle, his left leg was put in a cast during the summer. Some boys there had the plaster casts from chest to toe.

Stone was able to get on with his life, with normal shoes.

“I have no muscle in the lower part of my left leg, and I don’t have flexibility in the foot, but they straightened the ankle out,” he said.

He went on to receive undergraduate and law degrees from West Virginia University, and he worked for 37 years for State Farm in Newark as insurance claims superintendent.

He was able to pitch to his kids in the backyard and throw the football around.

“I played baseball and softball when I was young, pitched softball pretty well until I was in high school,” he said.

His sons Andy, 61; Roger, 59; and Mitch, 56, along with daughter Terry, 52, all graduated from Licking Valley. A couple of the sons played football for Valley, and two of them were in little league baseball in the Valley area, but never in the Shrine Tournament.

The tournament continues to do well in its 71st year, despite no participation this year from Granville and Southwest Licking and no Varsity Division teams entered by North Fork.

“We certainly miss them,” Hill said. “We had 1,617 fans here on opening day, and gate numbers are way up.”

Stone also is doing well. He has seven grandchildren.

“In 1938, it was my summer of discontent, but at the same time, kind of a physical epiphany,” he said. “Now at 88-plus, my ankle is straight as well as the shoes. The discontent is long gone, but the epiphany continues.”

dweidig@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8557

Twitter: @noz75