The North Coast Woodturners: A Brief History.
By Dave Hout, Don Karr, King Heiple and Darrell Dube
January 2010
The NCWT was started in the spring of 1986 only a few months after the formation of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) in the fall of 1985. We are the Alpha Chapter of the AAW! Newsletter #1 is dated Oct. 1986.
The original organizing effort came from Dave Hout with the assistance of Ernie Conover and the Conover Workshops mailing list. The very first meeting attracted 23 members.
Dave Hout was the first president, Gary Lansinger vice-president, Bruce Lance secretary and Ray Brandon treasurer. NCWT grew quickly and in the next few years was conducting symposia with many of the best turners in the country as presenters. North Coast was the host of the very first AAW sponsored local symposium with Russ Hurt, Del Stubbs, Alan Lacer and Al Stirt.
The first meetings were held in members workshops and tool stores but settled into the Coventry High School near Akron, OH. The club early on began working hard on activities to assist its membership including a lending library – now very extensive – group purchases of supplies, monthly raffles of tools and wood and much more.
In 1991 the membership distribution and size demanded a bigger, more central venue and the meetings shifted to the Rockler Woodworking & Hardware store in Parma, Ohio. In 1993, the club grew to over 100 members and the Akron-based membership held a separate meeting and decided to form a separate group, the Buckeye Woodworkers and Turners, and 33 members started this new chapter. Since this separation they have increased their membership to over 100 and we have grown to over 150 members.
In 2009 the North Coast Woodturners club moved to its present location at 4450 Oaks Road in the City of Brecksville's Blossom Hill Community Center.
The club is governed by the NCWT Code of Regulations. (Select the Resources Tab above and find this listed among the Meeting Handouts)
Over the past 24 years the club has had many of the most widely recognized turning artists as visiting demonstrators, including: Stuart Batty, Trent Bosch, Jimmy Clews, Ernie Conover, Nick Cook, Ron Cronkite, Judy Ditmer, Jamie Donaldson, Jim Duxbury, Dave Ellsworth, Ron Fleming, Clay Foster, Mark Gardner, Bill Grumbine, Michael Hosaluk, Dave Hout, Lyle Jameson, John Jordan, Ray Key, Alan Lacer, Bert Marsh, Rude Osolink, Robert Rosand, Betty Scarpino, Mark St. Ledger, Dick Sing, Bill Stephensen, Al Stirt, Del Stubbs, Frank Sudol, and Andy Wolfe.