The Oberlin Country Day Camp for boys and girls was begun by Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Kretchmar in the summer of 1954. Robert Kretchmar, Class of 1940 and president of his class, was Associate Professor of Physical Education at the College from 1952 until his death from lung cancer in 1961 at the age of 44. He was the College’s head baseball coach and served as assistant coach before his illness. In addition to his A.B. degree from Oberlin, he received a master’s degree in 1946 and a doctorate in education in 1949 from Columbia University.
The camp was a family enterprise: Robert was Camp Director, and his wife Clara, a Western Reserve University and Cleveland School of Arts graduate, handled the craft program. In 1960 their eldest son Scott was one of the counselors. That year Ralph Bibler, varsity swimming coach at the College, instructed the swimming classes. Approximately 35 people from Oberlin served on the day camp staff, including several Oberlin College physical education staff members and two Oberlin High School teachers. Activities offered to campers included archery, badminton, softball, volleyball, horseback riding, hiking, fishing, nature study, painting, crafts, games, and field trips.
The camp was first located on the Dan Campbell farm on Parsons Road. The first year of the Camp’s operation, the average number of children who attended each week was 24. In 1956 the Kretchmars purchased a parcel of land for a permanent camp site located on the Vermilion River, about 5 miles west of Oberlin. It was a 21-acre tract on Baird Road that had been part of the James Robinson farm. The camp rented the College’s Crane Pool for two mornings a week until they built their own swimming pool in 1960. A Family Swim Club, a private organization consisting of 85 families in the Oberlin area, used the pool as well, for an initial fee of $10 to join and an annual membership fee of $50. Billy D. Tidwell, varsity track coach at Oberlin College, was the supervisor of the Family Swim Club program.
In 1998 the camp property was purchased with funds from the Evan and Cindy Nord Fund by Sister Rose Bator of the Sisters of Humility of Mary in Villa Maria, Pennsylvania. The site became the home of Common Ground, the Cindy Nord Center for Renewal, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates a nature retreat and conference center. The focus of the Center is to provide environmental and sustainability education and spiritual renewal for youth, adults, families and organizations.
Sources Consulted
Copies of newspaper clippings in the Oberlin Country Day Camp Photographs Collection.
The Common Ground website at http://www.commongroundcenter.org, accessed on 21 March 2013.
Author: Anne Cuyler Salsich
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