School discovers a uniform, its owners
In an unoccupied room behind the Trexler Middle School auditorium, under dust and forgotten sweaters in a tucked-away box, teachers found a military uniform they assumed was a costume.
Then they noticed a serial number and the date 1918 on an inside tag, and found a breast pocket note: “Mr. Lobach.”
A bit of research fleshed out the historical record. Allentown resident James Franklin Lobach wore the uniform during World War I, the teachers discovered.
“It was in a corner of the room
that no one had touched for maybe 30 years,” said Mike Gurdineer, a seventh-grade math teacher. “It was in near-perfect condition.”
Gurdineer and his fellow teachers yearned for more information. Gurdineer enlisted his mother, Teresa Gurdineer, a town historian in upstate New York.
The quest uncovered that Lobach had lived on nearby Greenleaf Street in Allentown. He never served overseas during the war, instead working in the 155th Depot Brigade, headquartered in Camp Upton, N.Y. The brigade received and organized recruits and did training.
His obituary in The Morning Call says he died in 1977, at age 86. The obituary notes that Lobach, who worked as car salesman, “was an Army veteran of World War I.”
The teachers found the uniform on an in-service day while cleaning a room that will be used as a lounge for students rewarded for good behavior. The room had become a bit of a dumping ground over the years, they said. While cleaning it, they also found sweaters and shirts from the 1970s.
The World War I uniform was definitely the oldest item they uncovered.
“It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever found in Trexler,” said Rebecca Hann, an eighth-grade teacher for the school’s English language learners.
The teachers wanted to make sure the uniform was returned to the rightful family. Meanwhile, they kept it in the room where they found it — and largely kept quiet about it.
But Matt Suder, an eighthgrade social studies teacher, was excited to tell his students, who were shocked at the news.
“They’re amazed that it’s 100 years old and it’s been hiding here,” Suder said.
Gurdineer tracked down an email address for Lobach’s grandson, Jeff Lobach, who lives in York with his wife, Cindy. The couple’s response to his email was almost instant.
Jeff Lobach was already in possession of his grandfather’s dress uniform from World War I. As a child, he would often dress up in it.
But he didn’t know a second uniform existed. While Jeff Lobach had a close relationship with his grandfather, the elder Lobach didn’t talk much about World War I.
After James Franklin Lobach was drafted, he served at a base in New Jersey, Jeff Lobach said. Years later, the family found wartime letters indicating he hadn’t been thrilled about being drafted.
Jeff Lobach finds it fortuitous the uniform was returned to the family on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
“My grandfather must have been very relieved about 100 years ago,” Jeff Lobach said.
Cindy and Jeff Lobach value the family’s military history. In addition to his grandfather’s serving in World War I, Jeff Lobach’s father, James Franklin Lobach Jr., enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served in the South Pacific.
The Lobachs have devoted a room in their house to the family’s military history. The relics include the World War I uniform the family already possessed, World War II pistols and captured Japanese weapons.
Cindy Lobach visited Trexler Middle School on Monday to bring the uniform back to the family. It will be displayed next to the World War I dress uniform, Jeff Lobach said.
“It’s just a very serendipitous series of coincidences,” Jeff Lobach said. “It was really great that the school went through the trouble of finding the family.”
The Lobachs remained in Allentown until after World War II, when Jeff Lobach’s father moved to York for a job with Bethlehem Steel, according to his obituary from 2008.
How the uniform ended up in a box at Trexler Middle School, which was built in 1968, is unknown.
The teachers speculate it could have come in during a show-and-tell, or perhaps as a prop for a play.
“It will forever remain a mystery,” Gurdineer said.