(07/23/41 - 07/10/55)

    Chillicothe experienced its first water tragedy of 1955 Sunday afternoon July 10.  Thomas Borland, 13-year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Borland, Route 5 - Chillicothe, drowned in Mead Pool.  He was a freshman-to-be at Chillicothe High School.

    His body was pulled from three feet of water shortly before 2 p.m., and life guards and firemen used artificial respiration and a resuscitator but could not revive him.  He was pronounced dead on arrival at Chillicothe Hospital at 2:50 p.m. by Dr. M.D. Scholl and Dr. David McKell.

    Mead life guard Mary McCrea was the first to reach him and found the body submerged near the wall by the wading pool.  Other children had attracted her attention to him.

    The children were reported as saying the Borland youth "looked like he was ducking himself.  Suddenly he went to the bottom and stayed there too long.  We ran to the life guard then."

    Miss McCrea pulled him from the shallow water, and life guards Walter Schauseil and Don Cryder applied artificial respiration to expel water he had swallowed.

    Meanwhile the Emergency Squad was called, and the pool was cleared of swimmers.  Firemen received the call at 1:48 p.m.

    William Mitchell and Robert Taylor operated the Emergency Squad resuscitator while the life guards applied artificial respiration until it was decided to take the youth to the hospital.  Efforts to revive him were continued while the emergency truck was en route to the hospital, Mr. Mitchell said. 

    Mrs. Robert Lawson, a registered nurse who was at the pool, and Mead nurse Mrs. Frances Ekenrode also assisted, as did Police Lt. George Rice and patrolman Leonard Cochenour.  The boy's grandmother, Mrs. T. B. Borland, 816 Orange Street told the Gazette the youth's grandfather had driven him to the pool, and he was to return by bus.  Mrs. Borland expressed the opinion to the Gazette that the boy may have had a heart attack or a seizure.

    Pool attendants identified the boy after checking though his clothing in the locker room and finding a card in one of the pockets listing his name and address.

    The incident occurred about two hours before the park was to be closed to the public in preparation for a dinner for 25-year service employees.

    The youth was born July 23, 1941 in Ross County, a son of Earl R. - Route 5 and Loretta Schirtzinger, who died March 29, 1952.

    He attended the High Street Church of Christ in Christian Union and was a member of the school boy patrol at West Fifth Street School.

    Service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Ware Funeral Home, and interment will be in St. Margaret's Cemetery.  Friends may call at the funeral home after 6 p.m. Tuesday.

    Also surviving are the grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Borland, 816 Orange Street with whom he resided, and Mr. and Mrs. Carl E. Schirtzinger of Columbus; four sisters, Loretta M. of Chillicothe, Luella Rose at 816 Orange Street, Frances Adele - Route 1, Peebles, and Sandra Elaine of Chillicothe; and half-brother Earl Borland, Jr.

    [Photos above are of Tommy at Central School in the third and fifth grades.