Casper, Robinson to be newest Heritage honorees

NORWALK — A historian who would attain honors from one of the great golf course designers, Donald Ross, and a lady golfer who spent more time volunteering than she did on the golf course will be the 2003 Eagle Creek Heritage Park honorees on July 29. Dale Casper and Marcia Robinson will be the newest faces on the granite walls that stand just west of No. 12 tee. The 3 p.m. ceremony will start with remarks by committee members followed by the presentation of the two inductees, Billy Terry for Casper and Carroll Coon for Robinson. A 9-hole scramble tournament will follow. After the awards ceremony, there will be dinner and refreshments. A graduate of Huron High School in 1967, the 73-year-old Casper recently returned to the classroom in Huron as a gifted specialist at Woodlands School. He has made a number of stops as a teacher prior to coming out of his latest retirement. Casper came on the Eagle Creek scene in 1996 and immediately made his presence felt as a volunteer in many areas. He had backgrounds in several fields other than the school room, one in hotel management (Washington, D.C.) and the other in lawn care (Florida). Upon moving back to Norwalk in 1987, he held positions in finance and accounting at several Norwalk businesses. He returned to the classroom in 1992 at the age of 42, taking a position with the North Point Educational Service Center. When Eagle Creek opened in 1996, he became a charter member and immediately made his presence known both as a player and a tournament scorer. In 2011, he accepted the position as member of the planning committee for Heritage Park and since then has worked tirelessly at making the park what it is today. "If you want to know something about Norwalk golf over the past 100 years, consult Dale Casper," board member Ken Bleile said. "He has done a tremendous job of researching the Norwalk Country Club that was founded in 1921 and the Elks Club in 1944. And his work has not gone unnoticed as he recently became a member of the prestigious Donald Ross Society of Golf Club Historians." If her health allowed, Marcia Robinson would probably still be at Eagle Creek, volunteering just like she did as a clubroom painter 30 years ago. "If it needed to be done, Marcia stepped forward," said many-time Ladies Club Champion and Heritage Park committee member Nancy Bleile." "I just wasn't able to stay well," the 76-year-old Robinson said. "And that's the reason I have not been out there for the last number of years." Robinson had a hip replacement in 2012 at the Cleveland Clinic but then the unthinkable happened: She had to have the prosthesis replaced. Of all things, it was recalled by the makers. So, it was back to the clinic and then the long process of rehabbing a second time. But, she was back on the course in 2014 and, amazingly enough, won the A Flight on Club Championship weekend. "I proved that after a back surgery and two hip replacements I was not ready to hang it up as far as a player," she said. "But, surgeries have a way of slowing a golfer down. I didn't want to quit but I had no choice." Robinson had done enough and those who followed her lead for 20-some years as members of the Ladies Association knew that was the case. She held every chair with the exception of the secretary in that group. "We had close to 40 members back then. I tabulated the weekly scoring here and later at Sawmill Creek," she remembered. And she still found time to refine her game. She has four holes-in-one at her home course. She did it on No. 5 three times at the Elks course and once on No. 3. A number of plaques hang in her garage, one for a B Flight title in 2011, the one for her miraculous play in 2014 and another back in the 1970s in a sub-flight. Robinson has been a tournament scorer for many years, serving along-side her fellow-inductee (Casper) in events such as the Calcuttas, and Oberlin Inter-Club matches. Both Robinson and Casper were elated when told of the committee vote. "It never entered my mind that someday I would be honored with a picture on the wall," Robinson said. For Casper, he has reaped the rewards of what he has done in making Heritage Park a place of honor. After all, it was his design that was used as the one for the park logo. He also designed the plaque(s) that will now bear his image.