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Remembering Mike Hersh: ‘A fantastic good-spirited curmudgeon’ By Morgan Rothborne Updated: Jun 28, 2022 02:12 PM A A Hersh Hersh Mike Hersh, who was suddenly taken in March from his family and the community he worked for, was honored by Ashland City Council this week. The council awarded Hersh the James M. Ragland Volunteer Service Spirit Award in honor of his commitment to serving the city of Ashland. He was remembered for his New Jersey frankness, his sense of humor, his energy and his dedication to community service. Hersh was killed March 22 while loading donations of food into the trunk of his car for the Meal on Wheels Food and Friends program at the Ashland Senior Center. The driver of a small truck accidentally hit the accelerator rather than the brake, police said. Hersh’s wife of 50 years, Char Hersh, a retired nurse, said she knows Mike was quickly unconscious, and she takes comfort knowing he didn’t suffer. Now she said she’s giving herself time to adapt to his loss before taking up volunteer projects again. “When I married him, I don’t know that he knew how to hold a hammer right,” Char Hersh said, “but over the years, he became quite the handyman. He built a deck. He built furniture. Electric he couldn’t do — he blew out a wall once.” Hersh said she and her husband spent hours talking every night — sometimes disagreeing. Hersh said they challenged each other. Now she’s reading nonfiction to fill the void. She said their marriage was a lot of fun, adding that they traveled together and visited art museums around the world. She said her late husband has given her an example to live up to. Mike Hersh had two master’s degrees, one in metallurgy and the other in business administration. He spent his working life mostly concerned with pressure vessels — titanium vessels used on rocket ships. In retirement, he threw himself into volunteer work. Hersh donated an estimated 10,000 hours of his time. He often volunteered at different organizations every day, including the Tudor Guild, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland Police Department, Ashland International Film Festival, Ashland Senior Center, ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum and Ashland Emergency Food Bank. “It’s like there’s a hole in the room, the silence is almost defeating,” said Andrew Overdorff, a volunteer at the Ashland Food Bank, who described Hersh as a “fantastic good-spirited curmudgeon.” “He would constantly ask me what I was doing. He was always trying to figure out why our systems were the way they were. He was a fantastic facilitator,” Overdorff said. Natalie Metler, senior and adult services coordinator for the senior center, said Hersh seemed to rub some people the wrong way at first with his direct way of speaking, but most people were able to see it came from a place of caring. Hersh was always suggesting new ideas and resources people should know about. His loss has left multiple holes, Metler said. While volunteering at the senior center, Hersh saw a need: Low-income seniors were struggling to get enough to eat. Isleen Glatt, senior services superintendent at the center, said it was partly because Hersh worked at multiple organizations that he was able to see and fill that need. Hersh started by connecting volunteers from the food bank with those at the Senior Center, and bringing surplus items such as frozen bread. Then Hersh said that wasn’t enough; he wanted seniors to have some selection. The Senior Center was working to establish a pantry to that purpose when Hersh died. Now, Glatt said, they have the Mike Hersh Memorial Pantry, a small but able resource for Ashland seniors in need stocked by the Ashland Emergency Food Bank. At the Ashland Cty Council meeting June 21, Councilor Stefani Seffinger read a dedication as the Ragland Award was presented to Char. “It’s almost impossible to name a part of the community that Mike did not touch and improve,” Seffinger said. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected] or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.