Cloice Temple grew up to be an engineer

[Oldiesmann]

Saw this in the Enquirer today and thought it was worth posting here. For those who get the paper, it appears in the Local Life section on Page C7.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20100924/NEWS0104/9250328/10

SHARONVILLE - Cloice Everett Temple fell in love with trains as a kid and decided he wanted to run a big steam engine when he grew up.

He finally got his chance about 70 years later.

That's when Mr. Temple, a retired electrical engineer from Sharonville, saw an ad for a job operating the locomotive at Kings Island and jumped at the chance to make his childhood dream come true. It's a job he would hold for almost 20 years, until he was 93.

"It was something he was always interested in," said his son, Cloice Temple Jr., of Auburn, Ala. "He got a really big kick out of being around the kids and seeing them enjoy it."

Temple, who died Sept. 19 at 97, spent most of his retirement working 40-hour weeks every summer at Kings Island. His son said he loved both the mechanical aspect of the work, as well as the chance to be around children and young adults.

"The engineers were older, so there was quite a difference in age," his son said. "I think Dad liked being around the young people."

He said Temple, who was born in Arkansas and raised in Mississippi, retired for about one year after working for 42 years at Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. in Norwood. He spent most of that retirement working in his garden, but he soon got restless.

"He got antsy," his son said. "Folks in his generation figured they ought to have a job. Dad was not one to sit in the corner and read a book or watch TV. He was always doing something."

So he started his own manufacturing sales company, Temple & Associates, and ran it for 10 years before retiring a second time.

The Kings Island ad he spotted in the newspaper ended his second retirement and launched the career he had wanted since he was a child.

Other survivors include his wife of 72 years, Margy Temple; daughter Joan Beaven, of Mason; sister Corene Tull, of Pine Bluff, Ark.; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Services were held Sept. 23.

[The Interpreter]

Mr. Temple was a fine and engaging man. He will be missed.

Thanks for posting that.

[Oldiesmann]

You're quite welcome Terpy. It amazes me that he was working there at such an old age, as that has to be one of the most difficult jobs in the park. It's great to see people staying active well past retirement age though, and I'm glad he got to live the latter part of his life doing something he enjoyed.