Orval D. Seydlitz

Orval D. Seydlitz, age 81 of Toledo passed away on September 3, 2010. He was born October 9, 1928 in a dirt floor farm house on a clay bank farm, north of Lincoln, Nebraska. His childhood memories are of the drought and Great Depression. For his first education, he walked to a one room country school and from there he attended Teachers College High School in Lincoln. The family was still farming, so he had to rush home to work on the farm many times driving the tractor till midnight. His commute to school was over gravel and dirt roads. Believing education was the way to go, he attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH because of the work study program, but when he ran out of funds he had to leave. He then worked for a year as a City Guide in Chicago but he and his buddy (who was in the service) had always dreamed of being in the theatre business. He returned to Yellow Springs where he worked for a construction company (on the end of a shovel) while he worked nights in a theatre projection booth (for free) to learn to be a Projectionist. Orval later became a Projectionist at the State Theatre in Hailey,ID. While he was there he married Ruth Young of Tiffin, OH whom he had met in Chicago. He was transferred to Gardiner, MT as the Projectionist and Manager of a theatre there. When television became popular, what would be the future of theatres? His wife suggested, since he was good at math, that he should start studying accounting. So he did on a piece of plywood across two orange crates. Following the death of the theatre chain’s owner, Orval and his wife returned to Ohio. He then secured a job as a Bookkeeper for the Crawford County Farm Bureau in Bucyrus, OH. His desire was to get into public accounting and he was able to secure a position with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young). After two years in the military, he returned to the firm and advanced to become a partner in 1970, eventually retiring in 1988. He said in those days you were expected to work weekends in the busy season and he learned taxes by preparing tax returns on Sundays. He was very active in the Toledo Chapter of the Ohio Society of C.P.A.’s serving on many committees and served as the President of the chapter and was a member of the State Board of Directors. He served seven years as the Treasurer of the Toledo Opera Association and following that was Treasurer of the Toledo Opera Guild and was Treasurer of the Sapphire Ball for three years. He said, “If you want to get up in this world, pull yourself up by your own boot straps, nobody will do it for you.” Orval was preceded in death by his parents, Guido and Sattie Seydlitz and his brothers, Robert and Charles Seydlitz. He is survived by his former wife, Ruth Seydlitz; daughters, Ruth Ann Seydlitz and Jo Ann (Marcel) Bujarski; grandchildren, Matthew and David Bujarski; girlfriend, Jennifer Briskey, as well as, several nieces and nephews. Friends may visit at the Coyle Funeral Home, 1770 S. Reynolds Rd., on Wednesday from 2-8 p.m. Interment will be private. Memorials may take the form of contributions to the Salvation Army or the Cherry Street Mission.

Orval D. Seydlitz

October 9, 1928 - September 3, 2010