About Worthington United Methodist Church

And I Remember.Personal Church Histories

Howard and Jane Longfellow

In 1959, when Howard accepted an engineering position at Bell Labs, the Longfellow family moved from North Carolina to central Ohio. Howard and Jane became active at Reynoldsburg Methodist Church, where the senior minister was Dr. Charles Kirsch. As their children grew the Longfellows searched carefully for a larger home; and finally, in the autumn of 1965, they found just the right house in Indian Hills, which is south of Granville Road and west of Olentangy River Road. They then asked Charlie Kirsch to advise them about a church affiliation. Knowing Howard and Jane well, he unequivocally recommended Worthington Methodist. Wise man!

On the Sunday after their move to Worthington, the Longfellows attended worship at Worthington Methodist. George and Sue Callendine sat behind them and, immediately following the benediction, greeted the visitors and introduced them to Dr. Edge Dixon; Sue encouraged Jane to join a women's-society circle. Within a short time Howard and Jane decided that, indeed, Worthington Methodist would be their new church home.

Howard thinks that, over the decades, either he or Jane has served on every committee of the church; and many of those positions have been held by both of them. Early in their tenure here Howard was asked to be lay leader, and he recalls that he accepted with the proviso that he not be asked to preach! In his capacity as lay leader, Howard was privileged to help put in place the cornerstone for the 1968 building. Also, he remembers vividly the chaos of that first Sunday morning in our new sanctuary, the consecration of the house: Bishop F. Gerald Ensley gave the sermon and sadly, despite Howard's best efforts in running the sound system, the congregation heard more noise than words.

Jane has chaired the Administrative Board, the Board of Trustees, and the Staff/Parish Committee. She claims to have enjoyed each job! During her term as member and then chair of Trustees, that body was responsible for: a major renovation of the Hartford Street parsonage, the sale of the Morning Street parsonage, the purchase of the Downs Street parsonage, and significant improvements to the Weydon Road parsonage. Jane's recollections of those years are a blur of sanding, painting, carpeting, draperies, wallpaper, bathroom repairs...

As chair of Administrative Board, Jane helped that group to understand and participate in developing the "old sanctuary" into a chapel. Frustrated by some board members' reluctance to take a few minutes of their own time in order to view the progress of the project, Jane decided to hold their next meeting in that space. They convened in what we now call the Chapel Lounge. Jane thinks that her tactic brought about not only helpful ideas but also stronger support for the project, and she notes with some gratification that the Ad. Council still meets there.

The Longfellows remember well the several "Bishop's Dinners." When Dr. Ensley was bishop of the West Ohio Conference, he liked to convene each District's clergy and lay representatives for an annual gathering to celebrate churchmanship. Our new South Fellowship Hall was then the largest in the Columbus North District, having a capacity near 400, and a well-equipped commercial kitchen. Jane found herself in charge of these events, and usually they ran without a hitch: ministers sent in their reservations, so that adequate preparations could be made.

One year, though, the crowd seemed a bit larger than the number of reservations and, when it came time for one and all to stop milling about and actually to occupy a chair, about twenty folks were without seats. "Musical Chairs" writ large?!? Panic and disaster might have ruled the moment, but determination and resourcefulness prevailed. Dr. Harry Baker, superintendent of the Methodist Children's Home, dashed out to gather flatware and china for those extra guests; our church's custodial staff quickly found tables and chairs; and the clergyman who delivered the invocation spoke at such length that, by the time he had finished, the unexpected guests sat down with all of the amenities!

Another feature of the Bishop's Dinners was that, although those events were ostensibly provided by the women's society, the masculine contribution was not insignificant. Howard designed and installed the sound system for the South Fellowship Hall, crawling around in unimaginable spaces in order to place wires. Jane recalls that Don Ball and Carl Nourse ran the dishwasher for those Bishop's Dinners, and she well remembers that for many years Ralph Shrider repaired every broken thing.

Howard retired from Bell Labs in the summer 1989, expecting to subside gently into a serene way of living. Instead, he soon agreed to undertake a wholly new enterprise: the building of a harpsichord. Howard remembers that he followed the assembly instructions "one at a time," not knowing exactly what would result from each procedure, and that the manufacturer was very helpful on the few occasions when he phoned for clarification. Quality Chevrolet provided space for the construction as well as the entire paint job: the inside of our harpsichord is "Corvette red." After the dedication recital for the harpsichord, when asked about a possible second career with harpsichords, Howard replied, "At first I referred to myself as a retired telephone engineer; now I'm a retired harpsichord builder." Do you know that, until about 25 years ago, WUMC had no women ushers? Marie Brittin (with encouragement from Art Wessel, then head of ushers) recruited a team of women who would greet persons, hand out bulletins, and collect the offering. Jane Longfellow was among that first group, along with Jenny Schroeder, Ellie Jones, Joan Lutz, Helen Goodrich and Milly Kristoffersen.

These days Howard and Jane serve as joint chair of Communion Stewards and thus are members of the Worship Committee. In their inimitable fashion, the Longfellows continue to support this congregation and the United Methodist Church in ways that suit both them and the larger community. This is called "wisdom."
-Jean Parks Lynn, historian