Good People

I have been thinking about doing a post on the death of John H. McConnell since he passed away last week.  When you have a blog that is also tied to a business it can sometimes be a strange line between the behind the scenes and the personal behind the scenes.

Because I am a mom of boys, half my life is centered on sports.  The other half is all girl.  Trying to find the happy medium, I plug along.  I know a lot of people only read my blog to see color, bags, and fun stuff like that.  I hate the idea that I bore you when I talk sports but in an effort to keep my life less hectic I have to combine the whole deal on one blog.

That means pictures of the kids for the grandparents, musings on my crazy life, pictures of bags, and a little bit of hockey (and other sports) thrown in.

I also like to point out when someone has gone above and beyond.  So here is my post dedicated to John McConnell.

I am sure that 99% of you don’t know who he is.

I won’t bore you with the details, you can read about him here

Basically he was a guy that built a company from the ground up, Worthington Industries.  He was known throughout the company and community as Mr. Mac

“It just came natural,” he said in a 1996 interview. “You don’t cheat. You don’t lie. You help your neighbor.”

He was huge on philanthropy and brought major sports to our city.  In 1997 he headed the effort to bring the National Hockey League to Columbus, writing a personal check for the whole sha-bang.  Without him the Blue Jackets would not be here.

He was also a minority owner of the Columbus Crew and the Columbus Destroyers.

You can read about the Blue Jackets reaction here 

and here 

But putting sports aside, he was also huge in our little town-  I always hesitate in calling Worthington a “suburb” since it is pretty much inside the city limits of Columbus and was established in 1803.

McConnell once again opened his checkbook when approached to help fund an arts center- his only request was to “make it first-class”.  The arts center was designated the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center of Worthington, after his late wife.

“This is the perfect marriage of my two passions: the city of Worthington and finding ways to recognize and remember my wife.”  he said last year.

Mr. Mac was at the final Blue Jackets game just a few weeks ago.  They gave away posters of the team at that game, with Mr. Mac sitting proudly in the middle.

Blake has it hanging on his wall and before he went to bed the other night we talked about him, what he did, and how cool it was to see him at that final game.

And I read somewhere that it was shame that he didn’t live to see the Blue Jackets make the play-offs in his lifetime but when they do, he will have the best seat in the house.

Thanks Mr. Mac.