Had a chance to chat with Adams County Fair Board member Dave Sperl last week, but not about the fair.

We spoke about the Othello Beautification Committee for an upcoming story. It didn’t take long for me to see that Sperl loves his community.

After the interview he took me around to see some of the projects and other community features, such as the swimming pool complex.

It’s nothing small the OBC has done so far. The value in materials, manpower and machinery is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and all of it, except some materials, has been donated.

The OBC, which is an organized group now, was started by Sperl and his wife Ann, and Sandy Dodge, after they retired. They were going to do just a little beautification. Then the OBC grew beyond their vision.

There is a picture accompanying this column with the OBC members who worked on and attended the dedication of a street light project. The full story and pictures will appear soon.

What got my attention more than the OBC story was Dave’s own story, how he came to be a resident of Othello.

Dave was born in Bremerton but raised in Juneau, Alaska. He moved to Seattle as an adult and went to work with Bell Telephone.

One day in March of 1963 Dave attended a church function in Portland. He met a young woman from the South Dakota named Ann Olson. She had just launched a teaching career in Othello.

Dave and Ann started a long-distance relationship. There was no face time and no cell phone. But there were love letters and weekend visits.

“It was raining when I left Seattle, and it was sunny over here,” Dave recalled.

Dave asked Ann: “Does everybody know about this?”

Apparently not. Othello had fewer than 3,000 people then, and all of eastern Washington was sparsely populated, compared to the west side.

Dave and Ann married in December of the same year with plans of staying in Othello six more months.

“But the weather and the friendly community caused us to stay, and now it’s been almost 53 good years,” Sperl said.