In Happened in Crawford County: Major Tom Grace's winding road to Bucyrus
Major Tom Grace was born in Philadelphia, the son of Edna Moser. His sisters are Dawn and Kim. His parents were hard-working people; mom worked in a hospital and dad for Teleflex. When Tom was 8, his parents attended The Salvation Army (TSA) seminary in the Bronx and then became TSA officers.
Like every Salvation Army family, there were a number of moves, including Buffalo, Elmira and Spring Valley in New York. He went to 13 different schools before he graduated from Shaker Heights in Cleveland where he lived the longest time.
Tom met his future wife, Deb Satterlee, in Cleveland. They have very different views about how they met. They married in Warren, Ohio, in 1978 and then moved to Akron to work for TSA there. A few years later, they moved to Morristown, New Jersey, and then to Dayton, Ohio, where he ran a community center. At that time, Deb edited an international journal for cancer cell cloning.
From Dayton they moved on to Suffern, New York, in 1990 to The Salvation Army seminary. From that point, off to Wooster, Cleveland on the west side, Strongsville and then the unheard-of long appointment in Wadsworth. Their next move was Canton and then they were finally blessed to come to Bucyrus on July 1, 2021. They arrived at the tail end of COVID when things were opening back up.
They had a lot of rebuilding to do as a result of COVID in terms of their programs and services. There is a great need here. They worked as hard as they could to get back open and continue to serve, especially food service. Deb and Tom were very aware they would need a new facility because of the age of the Salvation Army building constructed in 1939 as a gift of the Shunk Foundation. There have been no major renovations since.
TSA Board Chairman is Doug Weisenauer. He informed Tom the first time they met that the board was unwilling to spend more money on the current facility. He didn’t say Tom should do something about it — instead "we" are going to do something about it. The vision was the purchase of a facility with funds from the opioids settlement to provide a new home for the "army" and a new opportunity of service in the area of drug prevention and addiction. They closed on the lease of the Maplecrest Facility, at 717 Rogers St., this year. They have started some of the demolition of rooms and will be conducting capital campaigns to generate the funds for the renovation.
Starting at the end of September, The Salvation Army will offer the first of its new programs. The school education program will target first through third graders. The new facility will provide for expanded pantry services and an expanded feeding program with a “soup kitchen” available in the building on Wednesdays. The new building will make work easier for an awesome staff as they offer their services to make lives better. Other programs are in the planning stages and will be announced to the community in the near future.
Major Tom is anxious to have great success with all the planning. The couple will retire very soon to Merrill’s Inlet. They would retire in Bucyrus, but Major Deb doesn’t like cold weather and Tom can enjoy golfing there. In the meantime, he hopes to leave their legacy here with TSA and the success of their planning.
Salvation Sally coming to Bucyrus
In the past, while at Canton, The Salvation Army had a mascot called Salvation Sal. Now the “Graces” are bringing Salvation Sally to Bucyrus. She will be greeting young people and hopefully giving children a good feeling about themselves. Just wait until you see the costume, says Tom. Sally made her first appearance at the National Night Out Block Party on Aug. 1 at the Rogers Street location. Tom also has a love for writing and is currently involved in his new book, “Salvation Sally Comes to Bucyrus.”
Besides golfing, Tom loves to read, they both like to travel and particularly enjoy their weekly Saturday morning breakfast out. They are always looking for new breakfast "joints!" Tom loves cooking — a relatively new skill he learned from the cooking channel. “If Emeril can do it, so can I," he said. You can appease Tom by treating him with sweets or otherwise he’s capable of doing it on his own. Pennsylvania pretzels are great, too. When in trouble while at home growing up, he assured his mom that he didn’t do it, his imaginary friend Newton did. You could assume it was “Fig Newton;” it would fit in with enjoying cookies.
Majors Tom and Deb have three children — Lindsay, Tyler and Courtney. Lindsay, who's married to Chris Kercher, is the director of education of The Salvation Army in Wadsworth. Tyler is a nursing assistant; his fiancé Niketa is a nurse in the surgical ward. Daughter Courtney is a stay-at-home mom. Tom also enjoys being a grandfather. It gives him a second chance to get it right.
In closing, Major Tom loves to be in a situation where people are enjoying themselves and having a good time. He fully believes laughter is a healing. He also believes it’s a connector with other people.
Contact The Salvation Army Bucyrus at 419-562-0071 or visit its Facebook page.
Go online for more of Mary Fox’s stories and photos on bucyrustelegraphforum.com. If you are interested in sharing a story, write Mary Fox, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820 or email [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Tom Grace of The Salvation Army Bucyrus leading positive changes