Loss of a Friend - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Loss of a Friend

Dr. Pete Quinter - RIP

After recently searching through my list of potential future blog topics, I noticed one entry about my memories of a friend from my youth, Paul (nicknamed Pete) Quinter. So, this week’s blog is about Pete. Shockingly, I discovered while doing on-line research for this blog that Pete had, unbeknownst to me, passed away last fall from brain cancer. This blog is dedicated to Pete and his family.

As kids, we grew up on nearby farms; however, because our respective farms were split by the Shelby-Auglaise County line as shown on the above map, Pete attended Minster elementary school while I attended Ft. Loramie. That factor did not make us any less friends while growing up.

Pete eventually became a skilled surgeon at St. Marys hospital. The last time I saw him a number of years ago, he had just performed successful aortal femoral bypass surgery on my mother that prolonged her life by at least 10 years, for which I’ll be eternally grateful.

Pete and I would ride our bikes to each others farms at least weekly and always have fun playing whatever sport was in season, pretending to be cowboys and Indians or just goofing off doing a whole lot of nothing! Our ambition in life was to become "river rats", living on a house boat and floating down the Ohio River just like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn did along the Mississippi.

One incident I recall involved an old BB gun that no longer worked, or so we thought. The gun would make a pop after it was cocked, but for some reason, it would not shoot BB’s. So, we used the beat-up gun for our cowboys and Indian exploits. However, on one occasion, a BB must have became dislodged and was fired while we were playing. The BB shattered the lens on Pete’s eyeglasses as depicted in the photo below.

Imagine if Pete has not been wearing his glasses. The BB no doubt would have damaged his eye and likely would have made it impossible for him to be the outstanding surgeon he eventually was to become. Dad paid Pete’s parents for a new lens, and then took away my $1.25 a week allowance for for several months to “pay back” the expense. We were lucky that time.

However, fate was to change a few years later in 1962 when Pete and two older brothers were pheasant hunting and an accident occurred regrettably killing the oldest brother Joe. What a sad day I and many others will never forget. When young Pete was exposed to that tragic accident and the heroic work by the doctors as they tried to save his brother’s life, it was at that point when he decided to become a surgeon. Read more about Pete in this wonderful tribute to his life. And below is the touching thank you message sent to mourners by the family after Pete’s death last fall. May he rest in peace and may wonderful memories of Pete sustain his family and friends forever.