About Worthington United Methodist Church

And I Remember.Personal Church Histories

Bruce Herring

Born into a devout Seventh-Day Adventist family in Michigan, Bruce found himself at age 19 a warehouse worker at the Battle Creek Food Company, which produced several lines of vegetarian food. Four years later, in 1960, he had advanced to production leader and had married Edna Shade. Then Battle Creek Food was bought out by Worthington Foods, and Bruce was one of a handful of workers who were asked to move to Worthington.

Always energetic, Bruce supplemented his paycheck by washing dishes at Harding Hospital and by starting up his own cleaning business, which soon counted the City of Worthington and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church among its clients. When Worthington Foods was in turn bought out by Miles Laboratories, Bruce was made production supervisor. But, Bruce says, "the character of company operations changed with the new ownership," and he was troubled at being expected to work on the Sabbath. Thus he chose to seek employment elsewhere and responded to a one-line advertisement in the Worthington News for a custodian at the United Methodist Church. Bruce was hired, and he began his employment here on March 15, 1975.

Bruce recalls that his first year at WUMC presented the challenge of "organizing the church facility so it would work." Our buildings consisted of three distinct sections: the 1926 building, the 1958 Buckey wing, and the 1968 sanctuary and offices. Storage for cleaning and maintenance supplies was haphazard, and the work-load for custodial staff was inefficient. Regular maintenance had been somewhat neglected: Bruce remembers that it took two or three days EACH to scrub the floors in the North and South Fellowship Halls!

Our custodial staff at that time consisted only of Bruce, along with a night custodian and a Sunday custodian. From the start Bruce was a salaried employee at WUMC, and he admits that he regularly put in long hours to achieve and maintain the level of organization, cleanliness and efficiency that he deemed appropriate. In order to increase productivity at a relatively low cost, Bruce decided to hire young people from the congregation as part-time custodians. He now calls them "the congregation kids," and over the years they probably number above a dozen. Some of them were: Tim Turrittin, Brian Rolston, Mike Young, Chris Welch, Pete English, and Steve Wilcox. Pete and Steve were "Sunday custodians" for a couple of years. Tim and Brian, among other duties, painted the South Fellowship Hall. This concept was brilliant not only for recruiting inexpensive labor but also for giving a positive work experience to some of our youth.

Meanwhile, Bruce had begun to think ahead to retirement. In 1976 he asked Edge Dixon about the availability of a pension plan for lay employees, and Edge was sorry to say that none was available. General Electric, however, did have such a plan, and they offered Bruce a job. Bruce remembers that he told Edge that he'd have to accept the position at GE, but he promised to stay at WUMC until his replacement could be hired. "I never heard another thing from Edge" about this, Bruce says. And so he worked two full-time jobs for 20 years, until he retired from GE in 1996. In 1989 the church did institute a retirement program for lay employees, and Bruce decided to add that to his portfolio.

Bruce says that he has won many contract cleaning jobs at least in part because of his WUMC connections, as for example with Potter Lumber, the Worthington Presbyterian Church, and the Masonic Lodge. At some point during those years he found that he could do quite well with very little sleep. Bruce now claims (and who's to disbelieve him?!?) that he can easily get by with what he calls "power naps." These naps are famous among his employees, who stand in awe of Bruce's stamina. "Eating and sleeping are a waste of time," Bruce contends, "and the work must go on." In 1979 the United Methodist Women accorded Bruce the honor of special membership, and they sent in his honor a contribution to UMW missions.

Of the many repairs and renovations that have been undertaken during Bruce's tenure, he calls the 1980 experience the "most momentous." The Trustees' chair at that time was John Young, and their project created not only the Potter Chapel from our former sanctuary but also the Commons and several upstairs classrooms in the 1926 building. Plus, it involved converting the older buildings' heating system from low-pressure steam to a warm-water system similar to that already in use for the 1968 building, and it carved out more classrooms for the Creative Play Center and for the church's Sunday School program.

Bruce also remembers the 1994 project, when Steve Potter was chair of Trustees, in which new offices and classrooms were added on the east side of the 1968 building. According to Bruce, a major aspect of that effort was to add air-conditioning to the north buildings. "What a job that was!!" Bruce says. He was involved in the entire project, moving offices temporarily to the Potter Chapel and otherwise organizing usage of the buildings during the renovation, which included computer controls for the north building's air-conditioning. Bob Chiles, then our senior minister, "had me going 90 miles an hour" on a variety of missions such as new lights for the Dixon Lounge and fans in the Potter Chapel.

After Alan Sippel came to WUMC, he and Bruce discovered a mutual interest in long-distance running. They were astounded to find that both had participated in the first (1980) Columbus Marathon, when each of them earned one of the "coveted blue jackets" that were awarded to those who completed the run. Bruce says that running has been an important aspect of his own health. Recently Alan asked Bruce to recommend a plan for facilities operations so that others would know how to accomplish the crucial objectives of effectiveness and efficiency. Bruce has produced such a plan, and it includes intentional maintenance with the aim of a reliable operation.

Retirement? The word doesn't seem apt for C. Bruce Herring. But, hear me folks, Bruce is looking forward to it! Edna wants to go back home to North Carolina, and Bruce says, "If I stay here, I'll just keep working." Bruce had long wanted some land, a farm. His dad had a 20-acre farm, complete with a horse and chickens, when Bruce was a child. So in 1997 Bruce and Edna bought 25 acres in Bostic, which is 60 miles southeast of Asheville and is close to Edna's family. As of even date the house is about one-third complete, and it's "just not a regular subdivision house." Bruce has designed (surprised!?!) a home with radiant heat in the floor, an outside wood furnace, and a barn. The property includes a large wooded area and two streams. They'll have a "nice-size" garden, which Bruce will grow according to sustainable farming, along with a horse and a mule. Move-in date is late spring, 2004. Bruce has two married children, Kevin Herring and Tamberlyn Russell, and 4 grandchildren: Jordon, Kevin, Shanita and Shelli.

"The Lord has blessed me," Bruce says. "I have quick retention and a 'can-do' attitude. I aim not to let anyone down, and I try to be pleasant with everyone. We don't work here; we serve."

We'll miss you, Bruce.
-Jean Parks Lynn, historian