Former MC Reporter Dick Cowen: "Ancient History"

Retired Morning Call reporter Dick Cowen always had a knack for telling a great story in very few words. It's a gift I never learned. His latest ditty, "Ancient History," is below.

About 25 years ago, we moved from an old farmhouse in the village of Locust Valley to a row house in the 500 block of N. 5th Street in Allentown's Old Fairgrounds Historic District. It was located about a half dozen houses south of towering Dubbs Church at 5th and Allen.
In that bygone time, the church bulletin board one week listed a guest speaker for Scout Sunday.

It was John Karoly.

His topic: "Building Character."

Film at 11.

Dick Cowen: Zell's Morning Call Ignores Legacy of Earlier Leaders

Yesterday, I told you a little about Mike Welsh, one of Allentown's three remaining Republicans. Mike, who's running for the state house in Allentown's heavily Democratic 132nd district, has been mentioned by The Morning Call just once since January.

That's their Call, so to speak. But retired and well-respected Morning Call reporter, Dick Cowen, has a much different perspective. He'd like to unveil a "news story the paper just never wrote."

Richard "Dick" Hummel, longtime executive at The Morning Call, died some months ago. He received a lengthy obituary in the paper that he served for decades. He was someone admired by a large cross-section of Call employees.

One position Dick held in his later years was being a board member of the Century Fund, the charitable fund established by Call Publisher Don Miller to distribute some of his millions. He was one of the five board members of the Century Fund.

Well, the remaining four several months ago chose Lee Butz, the Lehigh Valley construction mogul, to fill Hummel's seat on the board. The report from a colleague is that Butz is fitting in well.

No mention in the paper.

Back before he moved over to federal court, then Lehigh County President Judge James Knoll Gardner called upon the Century Fund to submit a report of its first ten years of operation.

The report went on for pages, listing local organizations alphabetically and grants distributed by the fund across its first decade. It was impressive. Try to find it in checking out the back years of the paper.

The Baum School of Art has a scholarship gala scheduled for Oct. 18. It is to honor the vision of Donald P. Miller, the Century Fund and the Miller family. The printed notice of the event includes the list of the board of the Century Fund, including new member Lee A. Butz.

Editorial comment: If the hierarchy of the now Tribune-owned Call isn't hailing the legacy of its earlier leaders, what chance do the rest of us have for our achievements to be heralded?

Dick Cowen Tells the Lehigh Valley's Own "300" Story

Before Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners met on Wednesday night, I saw an elderly gentleman slowly make his way into the government center. His white mane of hair and large beard made him look a little like a skinny Santa Claus, and he was even carrying a bag and a package. Something about him was familiar, but I could not be sure.

The mystery was solved shortly after the meeting had begun. Instead of Saint Nick, it was Saint Dick - Dick Cowen, one of the best writers ever produced by The Morning Call. He and my dad had been friends of a sort, and I've always been a fan of Cowen's writing. So when he finished speaking and left the room, I slipped out and introduced myself.

"Ohh. Bernie O'Hare. I knew your dad quite well. I once set his car on fire."

Back in those days, reporters and lawyers would often travel together for a local case being tried out of town. My dad and Cowen had gone to Philly for God knows what. I'm certain their trip home took a lot longer than their trip down. Both were undoubtedly very thirsty after a long day in court.

"I remember it quite well. We were driving through Center Valley, and I must have dropped a cigarette. Next thing I knew, the car was in flames. Boy, that was a big one. Thank God for insurance!"

I vaguely recall the aftermath of that incident, as a still smoldering car sat in the driveway. I'm pretty sure my mom claimed my father had concocted another story.

Cowen, who appears to have stopped smoking, appeared before the commissioners to present them with a gift - a little bit of history from a member of the Lehigh Valley Black African Heritage History Project.

After being elected President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt planned a fight against soil erosion and declining timber resources, utilizing the unemployed of large urban areas. The Civilian Conservation Corps was born, and a detachment of three hundred blacks from the ghettos of Philly and Pittsburgh built roads, planted thousands of trees and constructed the nature dam between 1935 and 1939 at the Trexler-Lehigh Game Preserve (now the Lehigh Valley Zoo). This was the only CCC camp in the country with black officers.

One of these young men, a junior high drop out from Philly, provides a glimpse of his own experience. "We were in tents in the beginning. On out first night in camp, the buffalo were all around us when we got up in the morning."

Roosevelt's CCC saved lives while performing worthwhile projects. "Soil soldiers" gained an average of 11.5 pounds in three months. They built roads (125,000 miles), telephone lines (89,000 miles), foot trails (13,100 miles) and state parks (800). They provided erosion control on 40 million acres of farmland. They spent 8 million days fighting fires.

Play time? "The boys used to chase over to Easton to a taproom. Easton seemed to be more friendly than Allentown. Rarely did we go into Allentown for anything."According to Cowen, baseball games involving a team from the CCC Camp challenged teams from various local communities.

Cowen presented each commissioner with a copy of his 1968 story, in which a former camp member called his experience "a very good thing. Some of those boys went on to get some pretty good jobs."

"I'm wondering why we can't initiate the same kind of deal today."

Unfortunately, that some question can still be asked today.