The family of the late Joe Nuxhall will have 52 family scrapbooks digitized with the physical books on display at the Hope Center, the future 31,000-square-foot year-round indoor facility for special needs athletes. Most of albums already have been digitized.
Many of the articles are from former Journal-News sports writer Bill Moeller. Many more are family photos with his sons Phil and Kim and wife Donzetta, who assembled these scrapbooks.
It took about a year to scan and preserve the first 32 scrapbooks depicting the life of a Major League Baseball player and his family, said Brad Spurlock, manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local Historic Room at The Lane Libraries.
“We’re just very thankful we’ve been involved in the project,” he said of the Nuxhall family’s willingness to offer these genealogical treasures for public viewing. “Our goal is to preserve the culture of our service area communities, and it’s a huge collection as far as that goes.”
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
It’ll be later this spring or possibly summer when the first 32 books will be made available. The rest of the collection, some 20 scrapbooks, will be scanned and added to the collection online in batches. Spurlock hopes the W. W. Smith Charitable Trust, which covered the cost of the preservation supplies for the first set, will provide another grant.
Kim Nuxhall, the board chairman of the Nuxhall Foundation, said it’s special to him and his family to know that future generations will see his dad’s life while playing for the Cincinnati Reds.
“It will be a big part of the Hope Center,” said Nuxhall. “One of our goals is that I don’t want just a gym. I want something that inspires people, and in our community room that’s what we really want to do there. We want people to be inspired by dad’s career and giving.”
The late Joe Nuxhall, who was born in Hamilton and lived his adult life in Fairfield, died in November 2007 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but throughout his playing and broadcast careers and into his retirement he helped people. Whether it was creating a scholarship fund to help student-athletes pay for at least part of their college expenses, or raising money to help those with special needs, the elder Nuxhall wanted to help the Butler County communities that raised him.
Kim Nuxhall had reflected on his dad’s life when reviewing the scrapbooks before handing them over to the Lane Libraries, and said, “I still shake my head (at) the amount of speaking engagements. Probably thousands of them.”
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
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