St. Luke gets donation after 34-year wait
Gift was tied to lengthy strings attached to will
CANTON – Oscar Geckler’s gift to St. Luke Lutheran Community was well worth the 34-year wait.
A farmer and devout Lutheran, he’d spent his last days in the North Canton nursing home until his death in 1987.
Geckler’s lengthy 27-page last will and testament had set aside what amounts to a $1 million donation that finally will be available today to St. Luke.
“We’ve been blessed with a strong donor base,” said John Spieler, president and chief executive of St. Luke.
Still, Spieler acknowledged circumstances surrounding Geckler’s gift are a bit out of the ordinary. After all, Geckler died when Ronald Reagan was president and Joe Biden was a young senator from Delaware.
Oscar Geckler, financial whiz
Geckler and his wife, Bernadine, lived on a farm at the northeast corner of Route 62 and Broadway Avenue NE, in Nimishillen Township. Those who knew him said Oscar was a tightwad. His farm, often littered with brokendown tractors, provided little clue of the wealth he’d amassed.
Sure, the Gecklers had helped finance a few projects at their church — Holy Trinity Lutheran in Plain Township. But most didn’t realize the man who’d raised sheep and pigs, milked cows, and demanded mashed potatoes with his supper every night, had also studied the Wall Street Journal every day.
Oscar invested wisely.
He was worth $2 million when he died at age 92.
The Gecklers had no children of their own, though he had two from a previous marriage. So, he’d meticulously planned out his estate — creating four separate trusts — to ensure his wife and other immediate
family members would be financially secure after his death.
Money in one of those trusts, now being held at Huntington National Bank,
was to be used to care for the North Lawn Cemetery gravesites of Oscar and Bernadine, as well as seven other family members.
Emily Smith, a spokesman for Huntington, said she couldn’t comment due to privacy and confidentiality issues.
Lengthy strings attached to the Geckler will
In his will, Oscar wrote that grave upkeep was to continue for exactly 19 years and 1 day after the death of the last Geckler family member. That was Bernadine, who died on Oct. 3, 2002.
That time clause happens to expire today.
Spieler said the money will help support St. Luke’s retirement communities, which like others have battled financial repercussions created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
St. Luke operates facilities in North Canton, Minerva and the Portage Lakes area, ranging from independent living to skilled nursing. Most of the money, Spieler said, will be spent in North Canton, where Geckler lived.
Before Spieler joined St. Luke, a previous administration had tried to speed up the donation from Geckler, to no avail.
In 2004, a St. Luke attorney went to Stark County Probate Court in an effort to reform the Geckler trust because the large amount of money was way more than needed to care for gravesites.
St. Luke had asked Judge Dixie Park if it could remove $750,000 from the trust at Unizan Bank (which was later purchased by Huntington) and leave the rest intact for the graves. The funds, the attorney contended, would still be used in a manner to fulfill Oscar’s final wishes.
Park rejected that request. “Pure economic expedience simply is not a basis for reforming or accelerating distribution of trust assets ... ,” she wrote in her decision. “Such an order would likewise violate the clear direction and expressed intent of Oscar Geckler as he carefully set forth in his last will and testament.”
Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 or tim.botos@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @tbotosrep