Ralph Williams
SPRINGBORO — For half a century, Ralph Williams has been a barber.
Williams, 67, of Clearcreek Twp., passed the 50-year mark on Tuesday at Scotty’s Barber Shop.
“I just always liked hanging around barber shops,” Williams said recently while trimming Tony Chaputa of Middletown.
Customers also come from Trenton, West Carrollton, Miamisburg, Mason, West Chester Twp. and Franklin, where Williams got interested while getting haircuts at Doug Hall’s barber shop at Second and Main streets.
Williams’ first haircut, a buzz he gave his little brother, Ron Williams of Springboro, cut a little too close.
“He was about a fifth-grader. I got halfway through and thought, ‘That is really short.’ How was I to know there were different blades? My mom was really mad. He wore a hat most of the time, so it didn’t matter much,” Williams recalled as he cut Chaputa's hair. Chaputa was a referral 40 years ago.
“I think my buddy (Don Depew) put me on to him,” said Chaputa. “He does a good job and I like him.”
Chaputa said he already knew Williams, his aunt Helen Hermitz’s paperboy when she lived in the Residence Park neighborhood in Dayton.
“I delivered the Dayton Daily News and the Journal-Herald,” said Williams. “Started with the Shopping News.”
Williams began working at the Annex barber shop next to the Paramount Theater in Middletown.
Chaputa recalled that he began patronizing Williams at the Upper Kut, one of a handful of shops where Williams worked in Middletown before opening his own shop, The Clipper.
He kept barbering after moving to Florida and opened Ralph’s Barber Styling on West Central Avenue (Ohio 73) in Springboro, after coming back to the area in 1990.
Six years ago, Williams sold the shop to Scotty Pergram, but he still comes to work on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
“I don’t have any plans of quitting altogether until I just can’t do it anymore,” Williams said, as two customers waited.
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