Homer Gard
The YMCA's Camp Campbell Gard is named for a World War I airman who was the son of a Hamilton newspaper publisher. The camp on Augspurger Road in St. Clair Township was dedicated in 1927, six years after the death of Charles Campbell Gard.
Gard died the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1921, at his desk in the newsroom of the Hamilton Evening Journal (later to become the Journal-News).
A newspaper report said Gard "was preparing for a trip to Cincinnati, and was engaged in the editorial rooms in the final preparation of some copy," when he collapsed and died.
He died a few days before his scheduled marriage to Miss Helen Raymond of Wyoming, Ohio. He planned to obtain the marriage license on his trip to Cincinnati that day.
Among those attending the private burial of the World War I veteran in Greenwood Cemetery were two former Ohio governors from Butler County — James E. Campbell and James M. Cox.
The 26-year managing editor and vice president of the Journal Publishing Co. was born Jan. 13, 1895, in Hamilton, the only child of Homer and Lutie Mathias Gard.
He graduated from Hamilton High School in 1913, and attended Amherst College for a year before completing a one-year journalism course at the University of Wisconsin.
He then returned to Hamilton to join his father in publishing the daily newspaper, working in several departments to learn the business until World War I interrupted his career.
In July 1917 he enlisted in Battery E, First Ohio Field Artillery, in Cincinnati. In September 1917 he was sent to officer training camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis.
After earning his commission as a second lieutenant, he returned to the artillery battery and was sent to Camp Funston in Kansas and later to Columbia, S. C.
When volunteers were sought for the Army air service, Gard responded and was trained at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and at Selfridge Field, near Detroit, before nine months of overseas duty in France and along the German border.
At the end of his nine-month term, Campbell Gard returned to Hamilton and resumed his newspaper career, the heir apparent to his father, Homer Gard, who had purchased the Hamilton Daily Democrat Sept. 21, 1901. (The newspaper's name was changed to the Hamilton Evening Journal in 1908, and to the Journal-News in 1933.)
Jan. 15, 1926, Mr. and Mrs. Homer Gard announced their gift of a 30-acre site along the Great Miami River, about six miles northeast of Hamilton, to the Hamilton YMCA to be used as a camp for young people.
Mr. and Mrs. Gard, in a letter to the YMCA, said they intended the camp as "a memorial to our boy, Charles Campbell Gard," and asked "that it always be available for boys and girls of any age, color or religion."
The camp was dedicated Friday, July 1, 1927, featuring remarks by former Gov. James M. Cox of Dayton and Charles P. Taft II of Cincinnati, son of William Howard Taft, a former president and chief justice of the United States.
John L. Prosser, secretary of the Hamilton YMCA, said the YMCA had opened a more primitive camp on Four Mile Creek 13 years earlier.
"We had several old tents, an oil stove with only two burners and first aid kit consisting of a bottle of iodine and some gauze," Prosser recalled during the dedication ceremonies.
When it opened in 1927, the new camp had 20 buildings, including a 20-foot by 80-foot dining hall with electric stoves and refrigeration; five lodges, each housing 11 campers and a leader; a recreational building "for rainy days"; an informal playground for games; and a guest house "equipped with hot and cold shower baths."
Homer Gard continued to support the YMCA — and especially the camp — until his death Oct. 8, 1952, at the age of 86. His first wife, the mother of Campbell Gard, died May 15, 1934.
Gard died the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 25, 1921, at his desk in the newsroom of the Hamilton Evening Journal (later to become the Journal-News).
A newspaper report said Gard "was preparing for a trip to Cincinnati, and was engaged in the editorial rooms in the final preparation of some copy," when he collapsed and died.
He died a few days before his scheduled marriage to Miss Helen Raymond of Wyoming, Ohio. He planned to obtain the marriage license on his trip to Cincinnati that day.
Among those attending the private burial of the World War I veteran in Greenwood Cemetery were two former Ohio governors from Butler County — James E. Campbell and James M. Cox.
The 26-year managing editor and vice president of the Journal Publishing Co. was born Jan. 13, 1895, in Hamilton, the only child of Homer and Lutie Mathias Gard.
He graduated from Hamilton High School in 1913, and attended Amherst College for a year before completing a one-year journalism course at the University of Wisconsin.
He then returned to Hamilton to join his father in publishing the daily newspaper, working in several departments to learn the business until World War I interrupted his career.
In July 1917 he enlisted in Battery E, First Ohio Field Artillery, in Cincinnati. In September 1917 he was sent to officer training camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis.
After earning his commission as a second lieutenant, he returned to the artillery battery and was sent to Camp Funston in Kansas and later to Columbia, S. C.
When volunteers were sought for the Army air service, Gard responded and was trained at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and at Selfridge Field, near Detroit, before nine months of overseas duty in France and along the German border.
At the end of his nine-month term, Campbell Gard returned to Hamilton and resumed his newspaper career, the heir apparent to his father, Homer Gard, who had purchased the Hamilton Daily Democrat Sept. 21, 1901. (The newspaper's name was changed to the Hamilton Evening Journal in 1908, and to the Journal-News in 1933.)
Jan. 15, 1926, Mr. and Mrs. Homer Gard announced their gift of a 30-acre site along the Great Miami River, about six miles northeast of Hamilton, to the Hamilton YMCA to be used as a camp for young people.
Mr. and Mrs. Gard, in a letter to the YMCA, said they intended the camp as "a memorial to our boy, Charles Campbell Gard," and asked "that it always be available for boys and girls of any age, color or religion."
The camp was dedicated Friday, July 1, 1927, featuring remarks by former Gov. James M. Cox of Dayton and Charles P. Taft II of Cincinnati, son of William Howard Taft, a former president and chief justice of the United States.
John L. Prosser, secretary of the Hamilton YMCA, said the YMCA had opened a more primitive camp on Four Mile Creek 13 years earlier.
"We had several old tents, an oil stove with only two burners and first aid kit consisting of a bottle of iodine and some gauze," Prosser recalled during the dedication ceremonies.
When it opened in 1927, the new camp had 20 buildings, including a 20-foot by 80-foot dining hall with electric stoves and refrigeration; five lodges, each housing 11 campers and a leader; a recreational building "for rainy days"; an informal playground for games; and a guest house "equipped with hot and cold shower baths."
Homer Gard continued to support the YMCA — and especially the camp — until his death Oct. 8, 1952, at the age of 86. His first wife, the mother of Campbell Gard, died May 15, 1934.