ROSSFORD — City council renamed Beech Street Park the John Folcik Memorial Park” on Monday, after the
late John Folcik.
“You have to respect a guy who gives you a differing view,” Councilman Larry Oberdorf Sr. said. “He was a
captain on the fire department at one time and he used to work the basketball games, crowd control,
things like that. He pretty much ran Beech Street Park. He was just a very devoted individual that the
city received so many benefits from. This honor is so well deserved. No doubt about it.”
More than a dozen family members attended the meeting to see the passage of the name change.
Folcik died Feb. 16. He was 82.
All of the council members knew him, and no one could remember him missing a council meeting, until
earlier this month.
“He was a fixture here in Rossford and a fixture here in these council chambers. He will be missed,”
Councilwoman Caroline Eckel said.
Citing the “decades and decades” of work Folcik did at the park, each council member had something to say
on the passage of the name change. Some spoke of Folcik’s vigilance on taking council members to task on
local issues while others remembered the small things that he did.
“He always called me to see if I wanted pierogies. I always enjoyed our talks,” Mayor Neil MacKinnon III
said. “I’m not the only one who feels this way, the entire city does.”
Folcik was a Rossford High School graduate and after serving in the U.S. Army he worked for Libbey Owens
Ford Glass Company for 30 years. He was also a 33-year-member of the Rossford Volunteer Fire Department.

Athletics were a large part of Folcik’s life. He was a coach and the commissioner of Rossford Little
League and softball, and supporter of Rossford High School Athletics.
Folcik also volunteered at the Rossford Recreation Center and on the Rossford Tree Commission.
“He was a great man. I remember buying penny gum from him, when I was a kid, at the concession stand down
at Beech Street,” Councilman Christopher Heban said. “Nobody deserves this honor more than he does. God
bless your family and God bless John.”