THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407060156
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: Bill Leffler
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Nearly seven years ago, at the age of 69, Harold Joseph Monroe knew how he wanted to be remembered.
Monroe wrote a letter to then Portsmouth school superintendent Mack Cherry saying he would be cremated upon his death, and requesting permission to have his ashes placed upon the softball field at Churchland High School.
Cherry asked assistant superintendent Jack Ryder to examine the unusual request.
``I had never heard of anything like that in my 35 years of work in athletics and academics in the school system, said Ryder, once a basketball coach at Wilson High School. ``It had to be a very important thing to him.''
When it was ascertained that Monroe was truly sincere in his wish, his request was granted under condition that no funeral service or any public demonstration be held at the high school.
Monroe died on June 28 and his last request is being fulfilled.
He was a retired carpenter and foreman of Tidewater Construction Corp and an Army Air Corps veteran of World War II.
``I never knew his name other than Mr. Monroe,'' said Churchland athletic director Bill Strickland, the former girls softball coach. ``But this man was one of the most devoted followers of athletics at our school ever, particularly our softball team.
``I well remember when he first started coming to our games. He was retired and his children all lived in North Carolina. He began coming to our practices every day and would sit in his car and watch.
``I could see his interest and one day I told him, `if you're coming out here every day, I'm going to put you to work.'
``I had him sit behind the backstop and count the pitches our pitchers would throw. They would get 75 pitches and he would tell me how many were strikes and how many were balls.
``Before long he was like one of my assistant coaches. He sat in on my meetings in discussing the players and their progress. He traveled with us on the team bus.
``Mr. Monroe was truly committed to this. He never missed a game. He bought bats. He bought batting gloves for any of the players who wanted to use them. He provided the team with candy and with bubble gum. He even donated a player-of-the-game trophy.
``He just became a part of our team.'' by CNB