Walt Lange (1938-2020)
Math teacher, textbook author created tree farm.
By Tom Henry / The Blade
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 05:00:00 GMT
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SWANTON — Walt Lange, a retired mathematician and textbook author who created an award-winning tree farm nearly 50 years ago with help from his late wife, died Saturday at Hospice of Northwest Ohio. He was 81.
Mr. Lange was in good health until recently, when he had a stroke that left him paralyzed. He died within days, his daughters said.
He and his wife, Danuta “Donna” Lange, who died of cancer Dec. 30, 2017, at age 77, were featured in The Blade 10 years ago after Ohio had named the couple its 2010 Tree Farmers of the Year.
The two created Lange Tree Farm on their rural Fulton County property in 1972. It started out as a simple row of trees.
They ultimately planted thousands on 55 acres near Fulton County Road 3 in Swancreek Township. Lange Tree Farm also was the 2011 National-Northeast Outstanding Regional Tree Farm of the Year.
One of Mr. Lange’s daughters, Lisa Higginbotham, said her father was fond of a Greek Proverb which states: “Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
She said both of her parents came from humble beginnings.
Mr. Lange weighed 3 pounds when he was born in Toledo on May 7, 1938. He was the fifth of six children born to Arthur and Margaret Lange. His father never finished eighth grade.
The doctor told Mr. Lange’s mother “you will be lucky if you save this one,” Ms. Higginbotham said.
When he was about 10, Mr. Lange got a paper route to help his parents pay the family’s home mortgage, she said.
He graduated from the former Macomber High School in 1956, and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Toledo. He taught math locally until he retired in 2012. He also co-authored several high school and college textbooks.
“He was pretty passionate about anything he got involved in,” a son-in-law, Dennis Heban, recalled. “He was a hardworking guy.”
Mr. Heban and his wife, Denise Heban, Mr. Lange’s other daughter, lived about a mile from him.
If he wasn’t hunting or fishing, Mr. Lange would be walking in the woods, playing with his grandchildren, or doing handyman jobs.
“Rare was the day he wasn’t at our house or we weren’t at his house,” Mr. Heban said. He said he met him 32 years ago, spent countless hours cutting firewood with him, and got to know him more as a friend than a father-in-law.
Denise Heban said she valued her father’s opinion, and will miss going on walks with him.
Mr. Lange met his wife at Toledo Heights Library in March of 1958 when he was a UT sophomore and she was a Libbey High School senior.
He asked her if she needed help with the card catalog. She played along so she could get to know him.
“We were an item from then on,” Mr. Lange said in early 2018, after his wife’s passing.
The couple married on Aug. 12, 1961.
Mrs. Lange emigrated to the United States from her native Poland shortly after World War II. She was only 6 when her father brought her and her three sisters to America in December of 1946, and grew up to become a distinguished Libbey High graduate.
The couple’s two daughters remember both of their parents as being resourceful.
“They always planted a really big garden,” Ms. Higginbotham recalled. “As kids, my sister and I had to work in the garden before we were able to go do things with friends. We grew all of our own food and canned and froze vegetables including green beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and sweet corn. It wasn’t until I moved to my first apartment that I discovered you could buy frozen vegetables in the grocery store.”
Mr. Lange was inducted into the Fulton County Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2017.
He served as a board member or chairman of several state organizations, including president of the Ohio Forestry Association.
Mr. Lange was a member of St. Richard Catholic Church. He also hosted Boy Scout camps for many years, served on the Fulton County and Swancreek Township zoning commissions, and on the Swancreek Water District Board.
He worked with the Fulton County Fair for nearly four decades, including six years as a board member from 1996 to 2002. After that, he was on the Fulton County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors from 2003 to 2006.
Survivors include his daughters, Denise Heban and Lisa Higginbotham; sister, Marian Tripp, and five grandchildren.
Visitation is from 3 to 8 p.m. Friday at Weigel Funeral Home, 204 Chestnut St., Swanton. The funeral Mass will at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Richard Catholic Church, Swanton.
The family requests contributions be made to the church’s memorial garden fund.