AKRON, Ohio — This summer, the families and friends of two young heroes and a little girl will gather at the bottom of Memorial Parkway for a dedication ceremony to recognize those who died and those who gave aid when in 1964 the roadway caved in, pulling a car into a deep, muck-filled pit.
For Debi Foss, whose father, Akron Policeman Ronald Rotruck, was one of the heroes who perished that day, the dedication is a long time coming.
Over the years, Foss saw memorials for tragedies like the Doodle Bug train crash in the 40s in Cuyahoga Falls and was troubled that nothing marked the tragedy that killed 10-year-old Claudia Shidler, and prompted Foss’s dad and 19-year-old Hugh O’Neil to attempt a rescue that proved fatal.
The event happened on Tuesday, July 21, 1964, following a torrential downpour, according to an historic account by Jack Markowitz. Markowitz detailed the Akron event in a book about true-life heroes titled, “A Walk on the Crust of Hell.”
Forty feet underground, a 6-foot section of a large sewer pipe had cracked open, allowing rushing water to wash away tons of soil under the roadway, likely made worse by the storm, creating a deep pit that was hidden under the asphalt, Markowitz wrote.
As Velma Shidler drove home, going east on what was then Tallmadge Parkway, Claudia and her friend, Janet Lewis, 13, were in the backseat.
Shidler saw what at first appeared to be a 2-foot pothole, but as she attempted to steer her car around those driving behind her saw the road suddenly open under three of her wheels, Markowitz wrote.
The car dropped backward into a 25-square-foot by 30-foot-deep hole where it hit something solid, the impact pulling Claudia out through the back window and into the muck below.
Men work to free the Corvair that fell into a 30-foot pit when the road collapsed. (Photo courtesy of the Akron Beacon Journal)
What followed was a daring rescue attempt in which two men, Rotruck and O’Neil, descended into the pit, saving the two still trapped in the vehicle but losing their own lives.
Both men were posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism.
Foss, who was 5 years old at the time and the oldest of three girls, remembers the day vividly: Her mother cooking spaghetti and wondering why her husband hadn’t yet come home, police officers coming to the door and her mom passing out.
“She turned 24 the day of his funeral,” Foss said.
Over the years, Foss has heard many stories about what went on during the rescue attempt and the two-day search that followed for her dad, O’Neil and Claudia.
“I heard about police officers who wouldn’t even leave the site until my dad’s body was recovered,” she said. “There were just so many people that risked their lives. I thought that we should have a memorial for everyone involved, not just the people lost.”
Foss’s initial idea was to install a small plaque or marker at the site of the tragedy, because she doesn’t like asking for help or money, she said.
She had started developing a proposal to present to the city when the pandemic hit, bringing the project to a halt.
In the meantime, at work at Good Neighbors Food Pantry, Foss shared her idea with two volunteers there — Dr. Nancy O’Neil-O’Connor, Hugh O’Neil’s first cousin, and Bob Roberts, who both offered to help.
Roberts cautioned that a plaque would be too difficult for drivers to read, as the accident took place near the railroad trestle where the road narrows as it slopes east toward North Hill.
“And that’s a dangerous part of the road for people to ride,” he said. “I convinced her that the best thing to do would be to look at putting it where people could park and walk up to it, and sit there on those benches and reflect on what happened that day.”
Reaching out to the city, Foss was granted permission to install the memorial in the grassy area near the BARC Akron Dog Park and the parking area for the Summit Metro Parks Memorial Parkway Trailhead.
Crews worked for about 48 hours to recover the bodies of Akron Policeman Ronald Rotruck and 10-year-old Claudia Shidler. (Photo courtesy of the Akron Beacon Journal)
“There’s a restroom facility there, there are trees planted there. It’s a very, very nice setting,” Roberts said.
With the project now a monument, Foss, Roberts and O’Neil enlisted North Hill Marble & Granite.
The highly polished, black granite monument will be engraved with the date, names, and images of those who died, as well as the words that fulfill Foss’s vision: “In honor of all who helped that day; In memory of the lives lost that day.”
A Bible verse will appear at the bottom of the stone: “Greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Foss and O’Neil made a down payment on the $12,276 project, while Perrin Asphalt & Cement offered to donate the footer for the monument, Foss said.
Her mother, Carolyn Rotruck, who died last spring, had left money in her will in hopes there would one day be a memorial, Foss said.
To enable the community to participate, Roberts started a GoFundMe campaign, which surpassed the $10,000 goal.
Because donations exceeded the cost of the monument’s centerpiece, two matching black granite benches, engraved with the accident date, have been added, as well as solar lighting to shine on the face of the monument.
If crowdfunding doesn’t raise enough to cover both benches and the lighting, the families will pay the remaining costs, Foss said.
“I’m just so happy,” she said. “It just doesn’t seem like it’s real right now. And I just cannot believe so many people donated, so many generous people.”
With the community’s help, the families of the victims plan to install a granite monument and two benches near the site of the tragedy. (Graphic courtesy of Debi Foss)
